PRESIDENT

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
and CIVIL RIGHTS

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS by
TERRENCE J. ROBERTS AND ROCCO C. SICILIANO
with introductions by Micbael S. Mayer

THE

EISENHOWER
WORLD AFFAIRS INSTITUTE
AN AFFILIATE OF GETTYSBURG COLLEGE

Washington, D.C.

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Copyright © 2000 by The Eisenhower World Affairs Institute,
Washington, D.C.

All rights reserved. With the exception of brief quotations in a

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publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

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into the 21st century by fostering integrity and trust in federal
government, promoting broader understanding of America's role
and responsibilities in world affairs, and fostering leadership
development and public service in America and its youth.
Through independent and collaborative programs, the
Eisenhower World Affairs Institute pursues this mission by
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of individuals and organizations that carry the Eisenhower legacy
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 CONTENTS

Preface
Carl W. Reddel 4

Introduction
Michael S. Mayer 5

Terrence J. Roberts: The Desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School

Introduction by Michael S. Mayer 9

"Fear Is Portable" by Terrence J. Roberts 12

Rocco C. Siciliano: President Eisenhower's Meeting with African-American Leaders

Introduction by Michael S. Mayer 25

"Even If Success in This Area Is Built on Sand" by Rocco C. Siciliano 27

Textual Content of Source Documents

Memorandum for the Files on Meeting of Negro Leaders with the President – June 23, 1958 29
A Statement to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from Dr. King and the other Negro Leaders 32
Memorandum For the President on Reaction to the meeting 35

Suggestions for Further Reading 36

Contributors 37

Images of Source Documents

Memorandum for the Files on Meeting of Negro Leaders with the President – June 23, 1958 38
A Statement to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from Dr. King and the other Negro Leaders 42
Memorandum For the President on Reaction to the meeting 50

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 PREFACE

Historic events in the American civil rights movement marked the years of Dwight D.
Eisenhower's presidency, 1953-1961. One was the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas's Central High
School in September 1957 by nine black teenagers supported by federal troops dispatched by the
president. Another, in June 1958 and less noticed at the time, was the first formal meeting between a
sitting U. S. president and a group of African-American leaders. This Eisenhower World Affairs
Institute publication contains accounts of both events by key participants.

In the first Dr. Terrence J. Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, describes not only the dramatic
desegregation of Central High but also what life was like for a black child in a southern city during the
late 1940s and 1950s. In the second Rocco C. Siciliano, one of only eight special assistants to
President Eisenhower in 1958, recalls the historic meeting he arranged and attended between the
president and Lester Granger, Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, and Roy Wilkins. In
introductory essays, Michael S. Mayer, a professor of history at the University of Montana, places
Roberts's and Siciliano's recollections in the larger context of the Eisenhower administration's racial
policies and of the civil rights movement itself.

The publication of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Civil Rights was made possible
through a bequest from Ann C. Whitman who served for many years as confidential secretary to
President Eisenhower. Numerous individuals contributed to its preparation: Elliott Converse,
Margaret Gavian, Jane Kratovil, Lisa Mank, Kirsten Pederson, Andrea Poole, Donna Quesinberry,
Drew Ross, and the skilled people at Agile Press.

Brig. Gen. Carl W. Reddel, USAF (Ret.)

President and CEO
Eisenhower World Affairs Institute
October 2000
 INTRODUCTION
Michael S. Mayer

Writing history requires balancing the particular with the In recent years, historians have engaged in a major
general, the small picture with the large. For every national reassessment of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his presidency.
policy covered on the front pages of the Washington Post, there
are countless untold stories about how that policy affects the A president once scorned as disengaged, uninformed, and
lives of people and families. Sometimes seemingly small events, ineffectual has emerged as a skillful and effective leader.
such as the refusal of an African-American seamstress in Eisenhower's most acclaimed biographer, Stephen Ambrose,
Montgomery, Alabama to surrender her seat to a white man, can spoke for many historians when he concluded his evaluation of
have profound national consequences. Historians are called on Eisenhower's presidency with the observation that America was
to incorporate individual incidents and stories into a larger "damned lucky to have him." Historians have come to see
picture. This is the alchemy of history. wisdom in many of Eisenhower's policies, both at home and
abroad. Civil rights, however, remains one area in which
What follows are two testimonies. Each involves an historians have continued to criticize Eisenhower's record.
individual who played a role in events of truly national
significance. The two accounts relate to the struggle for racial Much of that criticism, however, is either inaccurate or
equality as it developed in the decade of the 1950s. One tells the ignores historical context. A moderate on civil rights,
story of a courageous young man who was one of nine Eisenhower was above all a gradualist. By today's standards, his
African-American students who desegregated Central High attitude toward African Americans seems decidedly paternalistic.
School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The other recounts the The same observations, however, could be applied to liberal
experiences of a member of the Eisenhower administration who Democrats of the 1950s, most of whom, moreover, regarded
arranged the first meeting between a sitting president and a civil rights as a southern problem and a legal problem. These
delegation of African-American leaders. assumptions made it easy to be a liberal. Change the laws in the
South, they believed, and things would turn out fine. Subsequent
Terrence J. Roberts's account does not simply relate the years have disproved both tenets of that liberal faith; race has
headline-making events of September 1957, when President proved to be neither an exclusively southern problem nor a
Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce a court order narrowly legal one.
requiring the admission of nine African-American students to
Central High. He also tells what it was like to attend school in a Thus, any objective evaluation of Eisenhower's approach to
surreal and hostile environment during the subsequent school civil rights must take into account the historical context in which
year. Moreover, his story provides insight into what it meant to the issue evolved. It must also consider how personal attitudes
be young and black in mid-twentieth century Little Rock. and political considerations shaped Eisenhower's response to
growing AfricanAmerican demands for equality. Finally, it must
The second narrative, by Rocco C. Siciliano, involves events examine the concrete advances made during Eisenhower's time
that took place less than a year after the federal intervention at in the White House.
Little Rock. Since the beginning of Eisenhower's first term,
African-American leaders had agitated for a meeting with the Personally, Eisenhower found any form of discrimination
president. Their demands evolved as events unfolded and Martin repugnant. In high school, a coach harassed a black teammate
Luther King, Jr., emerged as a significant new leader after the and eventually forced him off the team. Eisenhower, one of the
Montgomery bus boycott and the Prayer Pilgrimage (a march in outstanding athletes in Abilene, aided by his brother, Edgar, and
support of civil rights legislation in 1957). When Maxwell Rabb, eventually other teammates, forced the coach to reinstate the
the aide who had handled minority affairs, left the black athlete. Much later in life, Eisenhower and his wife Mamie
administration, the matter of how to respond to the requests by were vacationing on an island off the coast of Florida with
African-American leaders for a meeting with the president fell to General Lucius Clay and his wife. As they were about to check
Siciliano. His efforts led to the historic meeting, and a into a hotel, Eisenhower noticed a sign that read: "Negroes and
memorandum he wrote remains its best contemporary account. Jews not welcome." Eisenhower told Clay: "Let's go somewhere
else. I would never stay in a place like that." In addition, unlike
Both individually and together, these two documents enrich his predecessors in the White House, he did not use racial
our understanding of the evolution of civil rights policy in the epithets.
1950s. To comprehend fully the significance of these
recollections, to fit them into a larger picture, it is necessary first This does not mean that he remained untouched by the
to examine briefly civil rights policies of the Eisenhower mores of his day. Eisenhower spent most of his adult life in an
administration. army that practiced segregation and he spent a good deal of time
stationed in the South. He regarded southerners sympathetically,
particularly their desire to avoid contact with unacculturated
blacks. He used the phrase "you people" when talking to black

5
audiences (although it should be noted that his two-time Congress). For example, the Eisenhower administration hired an
opponent for the presidency, Adlai Stevenson, employed the unprecedented number of African Americans to work in the
same offensive usage). federal departments and appointed some to unprecedented high
positions. Eisenhower also made significant progress in
With African Americans he knew, Eisenhower displayed no eliminating discrimination in federal employment and in
bigotry. Eisenhower hired E. Frederic Morrow, making him the employment by contractors with the federal government. In
first black to hold an executive position in the White House. In addition, he enforced Harry Truman's Executive Order 9981
his personal relations with Morrow, the president treated his forbidding discrimination in the armed services. After issuing the
only black aide in exactly the same way he treated other aides. order, Truman had done little to make it a reality. The limited
However, Eisenhower could never translate his relations with desegregation that had taken place by 1953 resulted more from
Morrow or his horror at individual acts of bigotry to the larger the exigencies of combat in Korea than from any action on
issue of race relations in America. Truman's part. When Eisenhower took office, the military
remained largely segregated. Moreover, schools on military
In short, Eisenhower was no drum major for civil rights. As bases, living accommodations, Veterans Administration
he himself recognized, his gradualist views did not satisfy rising hospitals, and civilian employees on military installations
black demands and expectations. On the other hand, his views remained segregated. Eisenhower undertook to eliminate such
did not differ all that markedly from those of liberal Democrats practices, and he made major advances in that direction. By the
in the 1950s. The choice in 1956 was not between Eisenhower end of his presidency, the military had become the least
and Hubert Humphrey, nor could it have been. Averell segregated part of American society.
Harriman, a strong supporter of civil rights, failed in his attempt
to win the Democratic nomination in 1956, and even racial Perhaps even more significantly, Eisenhower set about
moderates like Estes Kefauver offended the southern desegregating Washington, D.C. When Eisenhower entered
Democrats who exercised so much power within the party. office, the nation's capital was rigidly segregated. Congress ruled
Stevenson's public positions on civil rights were virtually the city, and southerners dominated the House and Senate
indistinguishable from Eisenhower's, and, in private, Stevenson's district committees. In an effort to end segregation in places of
attitudes on race were even more conservative. public accommodation, the Eisenhower administration went to
court to enforce antisegregation laws left over from
Of course, Eisenhower's personal views on race were not Reconstruction. Eisenhower used his personal contacts with
the only influence on policy. He also believed in the separation movie magnates to help desegregate movie theaters in
of powers and the principle of federalism. These convictions Washington. The President's Committee on Government
made him less likely to act without Congress or to exert federal Contracts, chaired by Vice President Richard M. Nixon, pressed
authority over the states. In his book on Eisenhower and civil the District government to ban discrimination in its hiring
rights, Robert Burk maintains that Eisenhower's concern over practices and the hiring practices of contractors with the District
federalism constituted little more than a rationalization for government. The Committee on Government Contracts also
conservative racial policies. Indeed, Burk argues that Eisenhower exerted pressure on the Capital Transit Company and the
created a basis for "a more respectable kind of civil rights Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company to hire blacks in
conservatism." This analysis utterly misses the mark. Eisenhower jobs that had been previously restricted to whites only.
was deeply and genuinely concerned over principles of
federalism; indeed, he considered the issue to be one of the most The administration's policies resulted in real gains at a minimum
important facing his administration. Even some people of political cost. Those policies might well have continued to
dedicated to civil rights, including his attorney general, Herbert dominate the administration's approach throughout the rest of
Brownell, had reservations about tipping the balance too far in Eisenhower's term, but the Supreme Court changed everything
the direction of federal action. when it ruled that segregated public schools violated the
Constitution in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Eisenhower's
Eisenhower's sense of duty constituted another important Justice Department had followed Truman's in arguing against
factor in determining his position on issues pertaining to race. segregated public schools. In addition, Eisenhower had indirectly
As the political scientist James David Barber has observed, played a major role in determining the outcome of the case when
Eisenhower was "a sucker for duty" and believed that his duty he appointed Earl Warren chief justice. While Eisenhower's
required him to be president of all the people. In that context, he relations with Warren would later cool, the break did not come
believed that the federal government and the expenditure of over the school segregation cases. Further, there is no evidence
federal funds should not discriminate against any citizen and that Eisenhower ever came to regret appointing Warren to the
therefore should not be tainted by segregation. Court. Brownell categorically denied that Eisenhower ever said
anything like that to him. The only source for the story that
In the first year and a half of his administration, before the Eisenhower considered the appointment of Warren to be a
Supreme Court ruled segregated public schools unconstitutional, "damnfool mistake" seems to have been an oral history interview
Eisenhower made significant strides toward eliminating with Ralph Cake, an extremely conservative Republican National
segregation and discrimination from areas over which the federal Committeeman from Oregon who hated Warren.
government had unquestioned authority. He moved especially
forcefully in areas over which the executive had unilateral To be sure, Eisenhower did have his reservations about the
authority (as opposed to those in which he shared power with Brown decision. It represented an exercise of judicial activism

6
about which he had serious reservations and an extension of however, include the ninety-day time limit for school districts to
federal authority about which he had substantial doubts. present an acceptable plan to desegregate.
Nevertheless, the president resolved not to comment publicly on
the Court's decision. He maintained that it was not his job to After the Brown decision, Eisenhower adopted what he regarded
pass judgment on decisions of the Supreme Court; it was his as a centrist position between those who advocated no change
duty to enforce them. Eisenhower did say on several occasions and those who demanded what he considered to be too rapid
that "you can't change the hearts of men with laws or decisions." change. Eisenhower's misgivings about Brown did not derive
His public position led some to conclude that he opposed the from disagreement with the basic principle of desegregation, but
decision. However, not all of the president's signals were he worried that a sweeping court order was not the best way to
negative. Immediately after the Court handed down its ruling in accomplish that goal and that it might produce a backlash. At the
Brown, he summoned the D.C. commissioners and told them same time, he never questioned his duty to enforce the decision.
that he expected Washington to take the lead in desegregating its
schools. Further, in the aftermath of Brown, Eisenhower Southern communities reacted to the Court's decision by
appointed John Marshall Harlan to the Supreme Court over the forming White Citizens Councils and resorting to economic
objection of southern senators who feared that the grandson of coercion. Several southern states adopted a policy of massive
the lone dissenter in Plessy v Ferguson (1896) shared his resistance. Some places turned to violence.
grandfather's conviction that "the Constitution is color blind."
Ultimately, southern resistance forced Eisenhower's hand. In
The Court's decision in 1954 simply ruled that segregated public Hoxie, Arkansas, the Justice Department intervened to get an
schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment. It did not provide injunction against a mob trying to prevent court-ordered
relief. Instead, the Court requested reargument on that question desegregation. Southern resistance also convinced Eisenhower
and invited the government to participate. With the assistance of of the need for federal legislation. The Eisenhower
Philip administration proposed a four-point civil rights package in
1956. The first recommendation would have created a Civil
Elman, a career attorney in the Justice Department, Simon E. Rights Commission to study the problem of race relations and to
Sobeloff, the solicitor general, prepared a draft of the brief the make recommendations. The second provided for the creation
government would present. It recommended that the Court not of a civil rights division within the Justice Department. The
set a single deadline, but it argued that the vindication of the third, and most controversial, granted the attorney general
constitutional right of black school children to attend authority to initiate civil suits to vindicate civil rights. The fourth
nonsegregated schools be as "prompt as possible." It further provided protection for voting rights. Lyndon Johnson (D.,
recommended that if a school district did not present an Tex.), the majority leader in the Senate, buried the bill in that
acceptable plan to desegregate to the lower court within ninety election year. The administration reintroduced the package in
days, the judge should issue an order to desegregate beginning 1957 and obtained passage of the first civil rights legislation
the next school term. since Reconstruction. Johnson helped get the bill passed, but in
doing so gutted it. He eliminated Title 111, the provision
Eisenhower himself made some changes in the draft of the brief. permitting the attorney general to initiate civil suits, and
He replaced the words "prompt as possible," with "as prompt as weakened the protection of voting rights. However watered
feasible." He also eliminated a passage in which Sobeloff argued down, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 represented a major
that "experience has shown that normal contacts between milestone. The version of the bill passed by Congress proved
people, in groups or as individuals, serve to diminish prejudice, ineffective in protecting voting rights, and the administration
while enforced separation intensifies it. Race relations are sought and obtained in 1960 passage of a second civil rights act
improved when individuals, without distinction as to race or designed to protect black voting. That, too, failed to guarantee
color serve in the armed forces together, work together, and go the right of African Americans to vote in the South. Congress
to school together." Finally, the president inserted a passage did not pass truly effective protection for black voters until 1965.
explaining that the Court had long recognized segregation as
legal and that, in striking down segregation, the justices had Not long after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957,
taken note of its psychological impact on black children. "In southern defiance forced Eisenhower to do precisely what he
similar fashion," he wrote, "emotional factors are involved - and hoped to avoid. When the governor of Arkansas and a howling
must be met with understanding and good will - in the mob defied a federal court order to desegregate Central High
alterations that must now take place." School in Little Rock, Arkansas, Eisenhower federalized the
Arkansas National Guard and sent federal troops to enforce the
Perhaps more important than any alteration he made, court's order.
Eisenhower left most of Sobeloff's brief intact, including the
ninety-day time limit for school boards to present an acceptable Although the federal intervention at Little Rock remained
plan to the courts. He clearly did not, however, accept Sobeloff's Eisenhower's most famous action on behalf of civil rights, his
position that desegregation could and should begin immediately. most significant contribution came through his appointment of
The Court closely followed the government's plan in formulating liberals and moderates to the southern federal judiciary. In
its decree. The justices remanded the cases to the lower courts particular, his appointments to the Fourth and Fifth Circuit
with instructions that desegregation should begin immediately Courts of Appeal played a major role in desegregating the South
and proceed "with all deliberate speed." The decision did not, in the 1950s and 1960s. The judges Eisenhower appointed

7
implemented the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 and began to decision. Even after observing Tuttle's record on the Fifth
turn the promise of racial equality into a reality. These Circuit, Eisenhower considered him for an opening on the
appointments stand in marked contrast to Truman's and to John Supreme Court. Indeed, the president also seriously considered
F. Kennedy's appointments in the same region. All too appointing Brownell to the Supreme Court.
frequently those judges were segregationists.
Apologists for Kennedy have pointed out that he confronted a
To the Fifth Circuit, which included the states of Georgia, Judiciary Committee controlled by southern Democrats. That
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, Eisenhower was unquestionably true, but for the last six years of
appointed Elbert Parr Tuttle, John R. Brown, and John Minor Eisenhower's presidency, the Democrats controlled both houses
Wisdom. They joined with of Congress, which meant that the same southern Democrats (in
most cases the same individuals) controlled the Judiciary
Robert Taylor Rives, a striking exception among Truman's Committee. Nevertheless, Eisenhower succeeded in gaining
appointments, in forming majorities that shaped the course of confirmation for the liberals and moderates he named to the
desegregation in the Deep South. Another Eisenhower bench. Indeed, much of the legal history of civil rights in the
appointee, Warren Jones, proved unwilling to go as far as 1960s consists of appellate judges appointed by Eisenhower
Wisdom, Tuttle, and Brown, but he steadfastly supported the overturning segregationist decisions of district judges appointed
law and the Constitution. The appointment of Ben Cameron by Kennedy.
stood as an obvious exception to Eisenhower's commitment to
the ongoing process of desegregation. Political expediency alone Eisenhower's appointments to the southern federal judiciary
accounted for his appointment. revealed much about his approach to the issue of civil rights. He
believed that segregation was wrong and that he had a duty as
Eisenhower's appointments to the Fourth Circuit followed a president to make sure that the federal government did not
similar pattern. He nominated Solicitor General Simon E. support it. Yet he also believed that the only way to end
Sobeloff in 1955. Furious over Sobeloff's role in the second segregation effectively was through a gradual process and
Brown decision, southerners in Congress held up confirmation without federal coercion. The judges he appointed to the
for a full year. When Congress adjourned in 1955, Sobeloff's southern judiciary would enforce the law and therefore end
nomination remained bottled up in James Eastland's (D.,Miss.) segregation. By the very nature of the legal system, however, the
Judiciary Committee. Doggedly, the president resubmitted the process would be a gradual one. That was precisely the kind of
nomination in January 1956. After more hearings and a heated progress Eisenhower wanted.
debate on the floor of the Senate that lasted more than four
hours, the Senate confirmed Sobeloff. As a judge, and later chief The two documents that follow shed light on two significant
judge, of the Fourth Circuit, Sobeloff led that court to a episodes in the struggle for black equality in the 1950s. Terrence
reputation as a leader in civil rights law. Eisenhower also J. Roberts tells the story of a black teenager thrown into a
appointed Clement F. Haynsworth over the objections of situation with which no adult should ever have to cope. He
Senator Strom Thurmond (D.,S.C., later R.,S.C.), who supported comes at the issue of civil rights from a personal perspective,
a segregationist candidate. Rarely has senatorial privilege been that of an ordinary high school student who displayed
overridden in the appointment of an appellate judge. After extraordinary courage and self-control in an extraordinary
another prolonged battle, the Senate confirmed Haynsworth. situation. More than that, however, his is the story of
Eisenhower's successful efforts in these two instances revealed desegregation at the local level. He describes the day-to-day trials
his commitment to appointing judges who would enforce the and confrontations he encountered as one of the pioneers of
law. Although Haynsworth's nomination to the Supreme Court school desegregation. Rocco Siciliano tells a different story from
by Richard M. Nixon would later engender considerable a different perspective. He dealt with national policy as an
controversy, he voted repeatedly to end segregation. advisor to the president. Placing the two accounts together
serves as a reminder that decisions made in the White House
Some have maintained that Brownell was behind many of these have real consequences for real people. The narratives of
appointments and that Eisenhower paid little attention to them. Roberts and Siciliano offer insights into a crucial time in
Nothing could be further from the truth. The president paid American history, a time when the country began its first serious
close attention to the appointment of federal judges. Further, if attempt since Reconstruction to come to grips with the issue of
he had been surprised or disappointed by their performance, he race. Americans did not resolve that issue in the 1950s; they have
would have to have been an idiot because he kept making similar yet to settle it, and there is no promise of its resolution in the
appointments. Sobeloff could not have been a surprise. His near future.
public opposition to discrimination extended back to the 1930s,
and Eisenhower had read, and modified, the draft of the brief
Sobeloff prepared for the government in the second Brown

8
National Guard escorting Little Rock Nine. Terrence J. Roberts is second student from right.

TERRENCE J. ROBERTS
AND THE DESEGREGATION OF
LITTLE ROCK'S CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

Introduction

Michael S. Mayer

Terrence J. Roberts's reminiscence includes memories of a black and administrators encouraged achievement and urged students to strive
childhood in the segregated South. In some respects, it echoes stories for excellence, even if some students mocked their peers who embraced
told in greater detail by African-American writers such as Richard such values. The segregated schools he attended created a comfortable
Wright and Ralph Ellison. Roberts's account, however, derives and secure space within the harsh reality of a segregated society.
significance from its portrayal of life in a city known for its "good" race Roberts came to appreciate the "sense of family" these schools provided
relations. Underneath the veneer of civility, Roberts recalls instances of and observes that, after integration, black students at predominantly
confrontation and exclusion. For example, he describes the defiant white schools could no longer count on either a feeling of welcome or
attitude of black students when segregation ended on the city's buses in encouragement to succeed. On the other hand, Roberts's experience
1955. Even more dramatic is Roberts's recollection of absentmindedly might not have been typical. Richard Wright, for instance, did not find
sitting down in a restaurant that served whites only. He encountered an segregated schools welcoming; indeed, he found them maddeningly and
"eerie silence" that immediately warned him of his transgression. No frighteningly constricting.
verbal assault or physical violence was necessary to "put him in his
place." On another occasion, Roberts's use of a drinking fountain The veneer of civility in Little Rock shattered when the public schools
outside a service station prompted a frantic tapping from inside the desegregated. Little Rock's school board announced plans to
station and a stern warning that the fountain was "for white people." desegregate the city's public schools immediately after the Supreme
Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board
Roberts's account also observes the ease of social interaction across of Education. In this respect, Little Rock was not unique. A
racial lines under segregation, so long as the interactions took place number of school districts in Arkansas quietly desegregated after
within the clear demarcations of a segregated society. People are people,
the Supreme Court's ruling. Placid desegregation came to a
and Roberts reminds readers that friendships could form between white
employers and black employees, for example. sudden halt in Hoxie, a small town in northeastern Arkansas,
where desegregation had proceeded without trouble until Life
Humanity could, on occasion, reach across the color line. Those magazine ran an article about the town's desegregated classes.
friendships, however, were socially acceptable only so long as they did With the appearance of that article, white supremacist
not challenge the racial status quo. organizations descended on the town and organized rallies, a
boycott of the schools, and a recall petition demanding the
In one of his most interesting recollections, Roberts recalls the removal of the school authorities. The Justice Department
experience of attending segregated schools in Little Rock. His account entered the case and obtained an injunction against interference
points to some advantages and opportunities that black students
with the desegregation of Hoxie's schools.
enjoyed under the system of segregation. The all-black staff of teachers

9
 One might well have expected things to go more smoothly Moreover, Governor Orval Faubus, whose actions would
in Little Rock. The main branch of the city's public library had trigger the crisis at Central High, seemed an unlikely candidate
opened its doors to black patrons in the early 1950s; and, after for the role of a die-hard segregationist. He had not intervened
the law school at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in Hoxie and had condoned the desegregation of public colleges
admitted AfricanAmerican students in 1948, the medical school and universities in the state. However, politics loomed large as
in Little Rock voluntarily admitted black students. The university Faubus responded to events in Little Rock. Whatever his own
also desegregated its graduate center in Little Rock. As recently attitudes toward segregation, which observers at the time and
as 1955, the city's bus system had desegregated without since have found impossible to determine, Faubus faced
difficulty. reelection in 1956, and events in Hoxie had mobilized
segregationist forces in Arkansas. Facing a challenge in the
However, the city's racial moderation had its limits. The Democratic primary (the only race that counted in Arkansas)
white population did not want to integrate the schools and from an ardent segregationist, Faubus pledged that "no school
hoped to avoid doing so if that could be accomplished within district will be forced to mix the races as long as I am governor
the bounds of the law. In the event that segregation could not be of Arkansas." Along with reelecting Faubus in 1956, voters in
continued, Little Rock's whites wanted as little integration as was Arkansas also passed several measures designed to preserve
legally possible. segregation. In 1957, the state legislature passed additional laws
intended to block enforcement of the Supreme Court's decision
During the summer of 1954, even before the Supreme in Brown. Segregation made good politics in Arkansas.
Court heard arguments on how desegregation should be
implemented, Virgil Blossom, Little Rock's school Faubus helped initiate a suit in state court, brought in the name
superintendent, began to develop a plan to desegregate the city's of a group calling itself the Mothers' League of Central High
public schools. At that time, the city had only one senior high School, that asked for an injunction blocking implementation of
school for whites and one for blacks. However, two new schools the integration of Central. Judge Murray O. Reed issued an order
were under construction. Of the new schools, one, Horace restraining the school authorities from enrolling black students
Mann, was located in a predominantly black area. The other, in white schools. At this point Miller, the federal district judge,
Hall, was being built in an area of affluent, predominantly white asked to be removed from the case, and the chief judge of the
suburbs. When the new construction began, the school board Eighth Circuit assigned Judge Ronald N. Davies of North
intended that Mann would become the black high school, the Dakota to the case. Responding to a request from the school
old black high school would be used as a junior high school, and board, Davies voided Reed's order and issued an injunction
Central (the existing white school) and Hall would be for whites prohibiting interference with the opening of Central on an
only. integrated basis.

Blossom's plan called for integration to begin at the high On September 2, the night before school was scheduled to
school level. After monitoring progress at the high schools, the begin, Faubus went on statewide television and announced that
school board would integrate the junior high schools. As a final he would use the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the
step, authorities would integrate the elementary schools. The admission of black students into Central High, ostensibly to
school board adopted a somewhat revised version of this plan, preserve public order. Caught in a conflict between state and
which called for integration to begin in the fall of 1957 and at federal authorities, the school board asked that the black
Central only. The decision to integrate Central and not Hall children temporarily refrain from attempting to enter Central
constituted a major weakness in the plan. The working-class High. All of this added to the unimaginable pressure on
families who sent their children to Central would bear the brunt African-American students and their families. As Roberts's
of desegregation, while the affluent families and civic leaders of memoir indicates, even before Faubus's speech, eight of the
Pulaski Heights would not have to send their children to seventeen black students scheduled to attend Central had
desegregated schools. Class resentments played a large role in the withdrawn their applications. On the advice of Daisy Bates, the
events that followed. head of the Arkansas NAACP, the remaining nine students did
not attempt to enroll on September 3. When the school
Some in the African-American community regarded the authorities went to Davies for instructions, the federal judge
plan as too gradual. Despite some internal disagreement, the ordered integration to begin "forthwith."
local branch of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) decided to challenge the plan in On Wednesday, September 4, the National Guard blocked the
court. A federal district judge, John E. Miller, ruled that the plan entry of the black students. Elizabeth Eckford arrived a bit
provided for a "prompt and reasonable start" and therefore met before the other students and by herself. Twice she tried to enter
the requirements established by the United States Supreme the school, and twice the National Guard turned her away. As
Court. The NAACP appealed the decision to the Eighth Circuit she walked to a bus stop to go home, an angry mob followed
Court of Appeals, which upheld Miller's decision. Even if the her. Fortunately, she was not harmed physically, but the
decisions constituted something of a setback for immediate photographs of an aroused and hateful mob hurling abuse at a
desegregation, the school board had voluntarily developed a plan fifteen-year old girl shocked the world. The National Guard also
for desegregation, and the federal courts had endorsed it. The blocked the other black students from entering the school.
situation in Little Rock did not look unpromising.

10
At this point, on the invitation of Judge Davies, the Justice The highly trained, battle-hardened veterans of the 101st did
Department joined the case as a friend of the court. Lawyers their job professionally. They controlled the mob, and there
from Justice filed a petition requesting a preliminary injunction were no serious injuries. Under the watchful guard of the United
against Faubus and the commanding officers of the National States Army, the nine students attended a full day of classes.
Guard. Davies granted a temporary restraining order and set a
hearing for September 20. Attempts by a group of southern governors to mediate between
Eisenhower and Faubus failed because of the latter's duplicity.
In the meantime, Brooks Hays, a moderate member of Congress Things nevertheless began to settle down in Little Rock. By the
from the district that included Little Rock, offered to act as an end of the first week, the soldiers of the 101st restricted their
intermediary between Faubus and the President. Against the activities to the school grounds. The military escort provided for
advice of his attorney general, Herbert Brownell, Eisenhower the black students was reduced and eventually eliminated. The
decided to meet with Faubus. The president wanted to avoid a National Guard assumed control of the school grounds on
confrontation between state and federal power if at all possible. November 15, and the last soldiers from the 101st left Little
Moreover, he had great faith in his own powers of persuasion. Rock on November 27. A small contingent of the Guard would
Eisenhower believed that in the course of their meeting he had remain on duty for the rest of the school year. In spite of
reached an accord with Faubus. Under this agreement, the continuing harassment, eight of the nine black students would
governor would instruct the Guard to preserve order but to complete the school year, and Ernest Green became the first
permit the black students to enter the school. Faubus first black graduate of Central High.
proved himself untrustworthy in the public statement he released
after the meeting. Nevertheless, Eisenhower remained Roberts's account provides some insight into the daily
"somewhat optimistic" Faubus did not, however, withdraw the slights, threats, and occasional physical attacks endured by the
National Guard or change their orders. Convinced that Faubus black students. One of the students, Minnijean Brown, proved
had deceived him, Eisenhower was furious. unable to restrain herself in the face of constant harassment.
This made her a particular target for abuse from segregationist
The hearing on the government's request for an injunction took white students. Eventually, the authorities expelled her. Roberts
place in Davies's court on September 20. The governor did not recalls that "school officials could not nor did they try to make a
appear, and his attorneys walked out. Davies ruled that Faubus rational case for kicking Minnijean out of school." In one sense,
had acted unlawfully in obstructing the orders of the court and they could not. However, accounts by Virgil Blossom and
enjoined the governor and the officers of the National Guard Elizabeth Huckaby, the vice-principal for girls, revealed the
from preventing the black students from attending class. Faubus reasoning of school officials. Partly through her own actions,
withdrew the Guard. Minnijean had become a target and therefore a disruptive force
in the school. In retaliation for dumping her bowl of chili on a
On Monday morning, September 23, a large mob converged on boy who had shoved a chair in her path, some white students
Central High. While the mob occupied itself attacking black had doused Minnijean with hot soup on several occasions.
reporters, eight black students entered Central High through a Concern for her safety as well as concern for discipline moved
side door. After three hours of rioting, the surging mob the school authorities to expel her. They did so because her
threatened to overwhelm the police guarding the school. City presence, whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, created
and school authorities decided to withdraw the black students a disruptive and potentially dangerous situation that they could
for their own safety. not control.

That night, Eisenhower went on national television and The case of Minnijean Brown illustrated the unimaginable
condemned "the disgraceful occurrences of today." The orders pressure under which the black high school students functioned.
of a federal court, he warned, could not "be flouted with As Roberts recalls, they had been given some, although not
impunity by an individual or any mob of extremists." He then enough, instruction in nonviolence. Unfairly or not, their
issued a proclamation commanding "all persons engaged in such deportment had to be above reproach. In general, Roberts
obstruction to cease and desist." exercised amazing emotional control. He avoided trouble with
authorities, who recalled him as well behaved, restrained, and
The next morning, a mob gathered once again at Central High. one of the least likely of the black students to respond to taunts
After conferring with the White House, the mayor of Little and intimidation. Interestingly enough, Roberts blames himself
Rock, Woodrow Wilson Mann, sent a wire requesting federal for not defending Minnijean in one instance. One might
troops. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard attribute that reaction to hindsight, but Roberts also reveals an
and sent a thousand paratroopers from the 101 st Airborne incident in which he carried a switchblade that he used to force a
Division to Little Rock. That night, the president gave a televised white student wielding a penknife to back down. These episodes
address explaining that the "very basis of our individual rights" reveal the difficulty of practicing nonviolence in the face of
rested on the certainty that the president would enforce the constant physical threats.
decisions of federal courts.
Roberts recalls the importance of how adult figures of
An Army vehicle and an escort of armed paratroopers brought authority responded to the presence of the black students. His
nine black students to Central High on the morning of algebra teacher made it clear that she would tolerate no
September 25. Eisenhower's use of overwhelming force worked. harassment or misbehavior in her class. As a result, her class

11
provided a mild respite in Roberts's difficult days. On the other Roberts's account provides a ground-level perspective on
hand, his English and history teachers, who apparently made one of the seminal events of the civil rights era. It serves as a
little secret of their preference for retaining segregation, turned a powerful reminder that the struggle for black equality involved
blind eye. The most dangerous incident took place in Spanish more than presidents, southern governors, and civil rights
class, where the teacher was too old and too tired to police the leaders. For every court decision won by Thurgood Marshall or
explosive situation. protest led by Martin Luther King, Jr., there were courageous
individuals who came forward as plaintiffs, who marched,
Not all white students exhibited hostility. Roberts writes organized, sat-in, or braved angry mobs to attend school.
about the kindness of Robin Woods, a white student who shared
a text with him and, in doing so, risked being ostracized by other
white students. Just as the response of teachers to the situation
varied, so, too, did the response of students.

"Fear Is Portable"
Terrence J. Roberts

Sometimes I think it would have been a lot better for me if my in 1932 at age twelve after her own mother had died in
parents had told me directly, in no uncertain terms, about the childbirth. Her maternal grandmother, Lizzie Jeter, became
racism that filled the space around us, that polluted the air where caretaker for her and two smaller siblings: my Uncle Edward,
we lived. Instead, the development of my awareness that things whom we knew as Leady, and my aunt Catherine, known to the
were out of balance took place over time; it was a gradual family as Lamb. Life for my mom was a no-frills affair, and she
process. Slowly I became aware that some people had distinct was forced to work at menial tasks to help provide day-to-day
privileges in this society, and I was not one of them. And not essentials for the family. She was, however, encouraged by her
only that, but the line of separation between the privileged and grandmother to stay in school and she graduated from Dunbar
the unprivileged was drawn in color, my color. There was no High School in Little Rock in 1938. My parents first met at
satisfying explanation for many of the things I faced each day Dunbar. My dad had been born in Little Rock in 1920. He
that underscored the social differences between me and people attended public schools through the twelfth grade graduating
who were labeled as white. Black people were forced to sit in the from Dunbar in the same class as my mom. Family lore has it
back of the bus, watch movies from seats in the balcony, could that my dad's family raised objections to their marriage because
not, in fact, even get into the pool to swim at Fair Park, and of my mom's lack of social credentials. The Roberts were
drinking from the wrong water fountain could get you into more upwardly mobile people and looked down on the Jeters and Gills
trouble than quenching a thirst was worth. (my mom's maiden name) whom they, the Roberts, perceived as
social inferiors. In today's terms my mom's family would merit
None of the answers to my urgent questions about this situation the label, working poor. My dad's family, based on the fact that
were truly satisfactory. Mainly I was told that "this is the way it they owned real estate, would be rated a few notches above the
is." I was introduced to all of this chaos on December 3, 1941, social level assigned to my mom and her relations.
the day I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. For an
African-American male child this was not, I was soon to In 1896, forty-five years prior to my birth, the United States
discover, the most advantageous surrounding. The newspaper Supreme Court had ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separation by
account of my birth gives a clue about the nature of the race was constitutional. And so it was not just social custom, but
community in which I was to begin life. Social custom dictated the law of the land that threatened to limit my ability to
that in the routine newspaper announcements concerning such maximize any potential that might be mine. It was under these
things as births and deaths, only white parents would be formally conditions that I romped through an early childhood on and
addressed as Mr. and Mrs. I was introduced to the world as the around Izard Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. I had been born at
son of William and Margaret Roberts while my white peers were home which was then 2010 Pulaski Street. The family moved to
presented as the progeny of persons with social titles. The 1611 Izard a short time later into a house owned by my paternal
separation was even more onerous in that all white babies born grandmother, Lucille Roberts, who had migrated to California
in the time span covered by the paper's announcement were some years before. In those days, prior to my entering M.W.
listed first, we colored babies, with our untitled parents, were Gibbs Elementary School at age six, the family consisted of my
listed last. parents and three children, me and two sisters, Juereta and
Beverly. There would be a total of seven siblings, the three of us
My parents were both children of the South, although my mom joined by Janice in 1950, William in 1953, Jerome in 1954, and
had been born in Kansas City, Kansas. She moved to Little Rock Margaret in 1957. In 1948 we moved to a duplex at 1624 Izard

12
just down and across the street from my grandmother's house. English aided in the process of learning, and just how much fun
This move was part of some ongoing family intrigue that the whole process could be.
involved the sale of the house to a family other than ours, and
which led to some estrangement between our nuclear group and About the same time that I was discovering the secrets of
my father's relatives. education, a darker side of life that was truly frightening at times
forced its way into my world. I could not understand why some
In spite of the family rift, life in the neighborhood and the people acted in violent ways toward others. My older sister was
community seemed idyllic to me since I was not yet fully aware chased home from school one day by rock-throwing students
of the larger world outside my immediate surroundings. from her fourth-grade class. They were upset because she had
Everybody in my world was African American, and they, for the excelled in school and demonstrated their displeasure by
most part, tended to be benign and nonthreatening. There were attacking her. It made no sense to me. It made even less sense
exceptions. One of the more notable was Lily, who was more when George Carmichael attacked me in third grade for no
often than not soused to the gills on something we all called apparent reason. He rushed up from behind me and leaped onto
"Jic," and we thought she was dangerous as well although she my back during one recess period forcing me face down into the
never did anything to support that notion. She stumbled through gravel. He did not explain to me or to the teachers why he did it,
the neighborhood countering our name calling with threats but but it probably had to do with his feeling wronged in some way
she never acted on them. I never knew where she lived or by something I said or did. But it was not George who posed a
whether she had a family, she was just Lily who happened to be constant threat of violence. That role was filled by Oscar Trice
in the neighborhood. More representative, however, was Mr. whom we all knew as Scooloo. He was the younger brother of
Campbell, a grandfatherly type who spent time talking to us and the Trice twins, Sylvester and Clevester. Scooloo loved to
giving us grapes from the concord vines in his yard. Mr. terrorize all the boys in his age group and anybody else for that
Campbell and his wife would preside over the making of grape matter if he thought he could get away with it. On Saturday
jelly when the fruit was ripe. The whole neighborhood would mornings we used to line up at the Gem Theater on West Ninth
participate and our job as kids was to jump up and down Street to watch the double feature Westerns. To make the
barefoot in the tubs of grapes to separate the pulp from the adventure as real as possible, we would dress in our cowboy
juice. Our parents, mainly the mothers, would then cook the outfits complete with toy guns. Scooloo would go up and down
juice and fill mason jars with concord grape jelly. Across the the line taking things he liked from any of us. Refusal meant that
street lived the Whittaker twins who plied us with black walnuts you would have to fight the meanest kid in town who did not
from their trees to get us to do errands for them. They were the appreciate or care about rules of fair fighting. Scooloo, built like
resident jolly, fat people in our world, spinsters who loved little a miniature tank, and evil to the core, or so it seemed,
children and showed us their appreciation for our help by adding represented the opposite of what I wanted for myself.
a few dimes to the cache of freely given walnuts when tasks were
completed. The fuller picture of what was really going on in the world
came into sharper focus as I grew and ventured out beyond the
Mr. Campbell taught me how to work and to appreciate a limits of the neighborhood. By age ten I had a full-time job as
job well done. He hired me as his assistant to help clean the delivery boy for Floyd's Drugstore, one of the West Ninth Street
YWCA when I was eight years old. I enjoyed hanging out with businesses owned by African-American proprietors. During
him. I learned more by watching him work and interact with summers I worked eight-hour days and during the school year I
people than from anything he said to me although he did indeed worked some evenings and weekends. I rode my bicycle all over
have a lot to say. In fact, adults in my world were never hesitant the city and met an increasing variety of people of all ages, both
to give advice, offer suggestions, inform my parents about any black and white, during the three years I worked for Dr. Floyd.
miscreant behavior on my part, or just spend time in friendly As 1 think back on those times I feel fortunate that I was not
conversation. To me the message was clear, life was full of joy forced to confront racism in its more violent form; that was to
and there were people who cared, who loved, who welcomed me come later. In the meantime I learned about the nuances, the
with open arms. variations, and the subtle and not so subtle twists this egregious
ideology can take.
My life as an elementary school pupil in my neighborhood
school underscored this reality. All the administrators, teachers, One early afternoon, on the way back from a delivery in my last
cafeteria workers, and custodial staff were African-American month of employment at the drugstore, I stopped at the Crystal
people. Together they had prepared a place for me to learn, to Burger, a local downtown hamburger joint where I had often
grow, to prosper. And I responded with enthusiasm. My sister, ordered burger, fries, and chocolate malt to go. Today was no
Juereta, two years older than me, had excelled in her first two different except that after placing my order, I hopped up on one
years in Gibbs Elementary, and when I enrolled in 1947 of the stools at the counter to wait for my food. I don't
expectations for my success were high. I did not disappoint. remember why I made that decision; it just felt like an ordinary
Miss Waugh, my first-grade teacher, was the first to let me know thing to do while I waited for the food, a momentary lapse of
that learning was my job, and required that I pay attention to consciousness I guess. Suddenly, there was an eerie silence. All
what she had to teach me. It was no different with the other action seemed to stop and I felt like an actor in one of those
teachers, and I came to realize, through their patient guidance, images caught in a frame when a movie projector stalls. For a
the importance of knowledge and learning about everything few seconds I wondered what had happened, but then the reality
around me, the value of reading, how developing a facility with of my circumstance came crashing down on me. I had

13
committed a social sin; I was sitting down in a restaurant that
provided seats for white customers only. For an instant I had At Dunbar I encountered a series of demanding teachers who
forgotten the script, and my improvisation did not meet with challenged me to take what seemed to be a gift for learning and
approval from the owners, workers, or patrons of that use it to full advantage. Miss Tate, in mathematics, taught me
establishment. I got up from the stool, canceled my order and secrets about numbers and their relationships to one another.
left the Crystal Burger with a growing feeling of frustration and She made algebra and geometry understandable and fun; and she
shame. I could choose not to spend more money in the Crystal did not miss an opportunity to teach us about life in general.
Burger, which was the choice I made, but there was that feeling Each day on the blackboard she would have a message in chalk
of being swatted away like one of the flies circling around in the for us to absorb. One I still remember read: "He who thinks by
air. What was I to do with that feeling? the inch, and talks by the yard, should be removed by the foot."
In English class Mr. Foster gently encouraged us to go beyond
On another occasion when I was about fourteen years old and the ordinary in our quest to learn the intricacies of the language.
on vacation in Opelika, Alabama with my friend Allen who had I was teased a lot by my classmates for reading the dictionary,
relatives in that city, I faced yet another version of racism. Allen but Mr. Foster saw merit in such endeavor. He assigned poetry
and 1 spent a lot of time together and we often got so caught up for us to commit to memory and recite in front of the whole
in what we were doing or planning to do that both of us would class. There was a time when I knew every syllable of "A Leak In
simply forget to pay attention to things outside the world of our The Dike," having accepted a challenge from Mr. Foster who
own creation. In the midst of some such reverie on a particularly said that a boy in a previous year's class had memorized the
hot day in Opelika, we walked toward a water fountain outside a poem, and gave a mistake-free rendition of it in class. There was
service station. One of us, I've forgotten if it were him or me, Mr. Ellston who rarely smiled, but who saw to it that we knew
started to pull the lever to start the flow of water; all we wanted all there was to know about things scientific. Gossip among the
was a drink. Before we could sip a drop, however, there was a student body was that Mr. Ellston was frustrated because he
rapping on the plate glass window from inside the station that could not obtain a position as a scientist, a plight not uncommon
was so intense I thought the glass would shatter and I jumped among college and university trained African-American
back out of fear. A white woman yelled out: "If you boys want professionals. Mrs. Dozzell offered guidance as well as
water you'll have to fill one of those empty coke bottles and instruction and motivated us to succeed with gentle
drink from that. That fountain is for white people!" Later, after encouragement. My seventh-grade homeroom teacher, Mrs.
we had walked off our anger about this encounter, still thirsty, Dozier, would close and lock the door each morning prior to
we passed a movie theater and stood outside reading the giving us lectures about comportment, appearance, manners, and
marquee. We had been there for only a few seconds when a behavior. She spoke openly and frankly about our being
stringy, red-necked white man with his face twisted into a scowl responsible sexual persons, and never once, to my knowledge,
yelled at us to "Git aroun' back if you want to look, we don't sought parental permission to do so. Most of the teaching staff
want you niggers in front of this show." I was never totally treated us as if we were members of one big family; they were
prepared for these encounters, and each one carried its own the parents and we were expected to be obedient children. Not
shock value along with its message of hatred and loathing. I that we obeyed completely; there were moments when the whole
remember the faces: twisted, tortured mouths spitting out the structure was threatened by the actions of a few students who
venomous words; eyes filled with disgust; jaw lines set, rigid; resisted the guiding hands of the teachers and administrators.
cheeks burning with rage; nostrils flaring. There was no The social structure was resilient, however, and the offending
mistaking the message conveyed by these law abiding, students were rather quickly contained. The primary father figure
upstanding southern citizens. We were colored people, niggers, was Mr. Cristophe, the principal at Dunbar. He was a
and niggers didn't count in their world. Somewhere inside me a no-nonsense kind of administrator who found time to interact
voice kept repeating, there must be a place where things are with students in the hallways and at school social events and
better than this. 1 resolved to find that place as soon as I could. sports activities. He would shoot a basketball from halfcourt
during at least one basketball halftime every year that I can
In the meantime I continued to learn as much as I could through remember, and he would make the shot each time! It was one of
voracious reading and plunging headlong into schoolwork. I my fantasies to be able to do just that, to have the confidence to
followed my older sister to junior high school and as she make such a shot, even to attempt the shot for that matter. Mr.
continued to set a demanding scholastic pace, I was compelled Cristophe and the teachers who shared the responsibility for our
to meet the expectations held for me in her wake; Juereta was to education were engaged in every aspect of our lives. They cared
become valedictorian of her graduating class from Horace Mann about who we were and what we were doing, or not doing if we
High School in 1957. It is interesting to note that both the strayed too far from the accepted norms of behavior and
elementary and junior high schools we attended were named for performance.
noted African Americans. This was one of the many ways in
which it was impressed upon us that excellence has it rewards, At Dunbar I found the nerve to speak in public. We had
that if we studied hard and learned what we were asked to learn those bigheaded chrome microphones with metal stands in the
we too could reach such lofty heights. M. W. Gibbs Elementary school auditorium, and it was my task to preside at an assembly
School was named in honor of Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, elected as a just after having been elected student body president in my
municipal judge in Little Rock in 1873. Our junior high school eighth-grade year. The microphone was placed next to a podium
carried the name of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a renowned poet just close enough for my knees to bump against the stand, and
who published his first book of verse, Oak and Ivy, in 1893. while my voice quavered as if someone were shaking me, my

14
knees tapped out a rhythm on the microphone stand that was that black students would be welcomed and encouraged to
amplified and broadcast to everybody in the auditorium. I succeed in these newly desegregated environments.
figured if this hadn't killed me I could probably learn, with
practice, how to face a group and speak in intelligible sentences During the spring of 1957 1 first learned about the Little
without causing myself too much distress. Talking was one thing, Rock School Board's intention to begin school desegregation the
singing, quite another. In that same year I was assigned a solo following September. Representatives from that body visited
part in a choral presentation. When my cue came, I could only Horace Mann High and asked, rather casually really, how many
stare out over the audience as I stood petrified with fear; no of us would be willing to attend Central High in the fall? For me
sound whatsoever could be coaxed through my frozen vocal it was the best of timing; I had begun to entertain serious
cords. The music teacher did indeed want to kill me, and threw thoughts about moving away from the South since it seemed
sheets of music at me when we returned to the music room after that the forces arrayed against me and all other black people
the assembly. Her frustration was visibly greater than mine, but I were only growing stronger, not diminishing. My hand was up
can assure you, I felt a burning shame and wanted nothing more quickly in response to the query and I remember thinking that
than to hide somewhere and forget the whole experience. Such perhaps this is the start of positive change. Maybe it wouldn't be
calamities notwithstanding, I did use these opportunities to build necessary to leave these environs in search of a place where I
confidence in my abilities to address large groups of people. could exist without fear of being forced into some untenable
situation simply because of my skin color. Besides that, Central
A year or two prior to my entering Dunbar, the Little Rock was my neighborhood high school.
school system had built Horace Mann High School for
African-American students. It was located on the east side of There was a flurry of activity after that initial presentation,
town and to get there I would have to ride a city bus to most of which I was not privy to, which included screening all
downtown Little Rock and transfer to another bus that would the black kids whose hands were raised that morning. I don't
take me to Horace Mann. I lived close enough to Dunbar to have an accurate recollection of how many hands were up that
walk to school so going to high school meant having to leave day, but there were many more than nine! The screening process
home earlier and to incur the expense of a daily roundtrip bus included review of school academic and deportment records,
ride. It meant also having to face, on a more regular basis, the health records, and probably some investigation of our overall
segregated bus system which allocated seats on the basis of skin character. I was away from Little Rock for much of the summer
color with African Americans sitting from back to front, but visiting friends in other states, and my mom told me that she and
only if the front seats were not needed for white passengers. Of my dad were interviewed by school board personnel in
course, if there were just enough seats on the bus for the white preparation for the desegregation. In any case, in late August
riders, no African Americans could sit down and ride regardless that year there were seventeen of us ready to enroll at Central.
of age or gender. I remember well the day the buses were By this time the governor was fully committed to resisting the
integrated in 1955. Students, armed with copies of the daily efforts of the school board as evidenced by his public statements
newspaper with headlines proclaiming the end of segregated and actions. I am convinced it was his televised demagoguery
seating, sat from front to back on the bus. One student plopped that led, in part, to the shrinkage of our numbers. He voiced
his copy of the front page onto the bus driver's lap to make sure fears that blood would be shed in the streets of Little Rock, and
he understood this new reality. that armed caravans were reportedly headed for the city. There
was, in fact, some reason for alarm. People I knew were saying
The tenth-grade year I spent at Horace Mann was the only that they had experienced frightening encounters with bands of
year I would attend a segregated high school in Little Rock. In roving whites who were brandishing weapons and demanding
many ways the Mann experience was a continuation of life as it that they denounce any and all attempts to put black kids in
had been at Dunbar. Anybody who served in any capacity was Central. For some reason all of this served to strengthen my
African American, and I felt the same sense of family that had resolve to attend Central High in the fall.
been so prevalent in junior high school. Mr. Ransom, the music
teacher we called "pear shape" when he wasn't around, calmly, Yes, I was afraid. Fear was part of my daily existence during
and without a word, reached over my shoulder one day and took the days and weeks just before school was to open in September.
a book with the title "Sexology" out of my hands as I sat in the One thing I learned then and have never forgotten is that fear is
school cafeteria. The message was quite clear and unambiguous, portable; you can take it with you wherever you go. I did not
I did not have permission to read such a book. One other thing have to let fear become a barrier, it was already a companion,
was crystal clear as well; my parents would be informed instantly and I just had to learn how to get along with it. And it's funny
and I would have to explain to them why I was reading how you can make sense out of things when you have an idea
contraband literature in the school cafeteria. This was the about the way they should be in the first place. I knew that racial
system, and we all, or mostly all, I would say, accepted the limits discrimination was wrong. Nobody had to tell me that. I knew
without grumbling overmuch. There was a certain kind of also that it bordered on the criminal to deny basic rights to
comfort in knowing that the adults at school took more than people simply because they happened to have black skin. These
passing interest in our well being. This was one of the great thoughts existed along with my fear, and probably helped me to
losses that was to accompany school desegregation, especially see beyond my shaking knees and trembling voice whenever fear
for African-American students who enrolled in schools with a threatened to overwhelm me. My older sister was already settled
majority of white students. There was no longer the assurance in her dorm room at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama
on that night preceding what was to have been my first day at

15
Central High. Three of my other siblings were pre-schoolers; two blocks to the southern end in her attempt to get through the
Lisa, the youngest, had been born in February of 1957. Janice, line of National Guardsmen. We did not have much of a
the middle child of the seven of us, would enter the second conversation; Elizabeth was visibly shaken by all of the hostility
grade that year. The conversations at home that night did not directed toward us, and I had begun to feel a higher level of fear
include much speculation about what the next day might bring, as I listened to the taunts and name calling from the mob. I
but instead included the usual banter typical of a household full decided it would be best if I went back home so I turned away
of children, three of whom were preparing for the first day back from the mob and started to walk home. I had walked perhaps
to school. Beverly, the sister next in line after me, and I spent half a block when I heard footsteps behind me, and turned
time arranging first day of school clothing and playing with Billy around to see a lone, white, male adult coming toward me. I had
and Jerry, our two younger brothers. Perhaps the most assumed what must have been my version of a karate stance in
significant thing said that night came from my parents who anticipation of a fight when he waved his hand and said that he
assured me that I had their full support if I chose to go to was a friend. He apologized on behalf of the people who were
Central or if I chose not to go. I didn't appreciate fully the gathered around the school, and said that he wanted me to know
import of that statement at the time, but have come to realize that not all white people were opposed to desegregating Central
how very essential it was to have had the free, unrestrained High School. About that time my dad walked up. He had seen
choice of going or not going to Central, without risking any loss the increasing chaos via live television coverage and was coming
of parental esteem or respect whatever my choice. to escort me home. We thanked the man whose name I never
knew, and we continued our walk home. Later, we learned that
We learned from televised news that same night that Orval the other seven members of our group had met the same
Faubus, the state's governor, had mobilized the Arkansas response from the guardsmen as Elizabeth and myself. None of
National Guard and placed them around the perimeter of us were able to go to school that day.
Central High. My first thought was that the guardsmen, in
keeping with the governor's announced purpose in having them A lot of people had been caught off guard by the governor's
present, would provide a measure of protection from any violent action. His use of National Guardsmen to prevent us from
behavior directed toward the nine of us. My second thought attending Central High had not been anticipated by the school
would form as I attempted to enter the school grounds only to board, and their response was one of confusion and frustration.
be rebuffed by these same erstwhile protectors. Obviously, they It was at this juncture that the NAACP became a proactive
had been called out to prevent any of the nine of us from participant in our struggle to force the governor to relent and
entering school. remove the guardsmen so that we could enter school. Attorneys
from the Legal Defense and Educational Fund arm of the
I was up early the next morning. After breakfast and last NAACP filed court documents on our behalf seeking removal of
minute preparations for the anticipated first day, I tucked a the Guard. As plaintiffs in the case, we held strategy sessions
sharpened #2 pencil behind one ear, packed up my notebooks with attorneys Wiley Branton and Thurgood Marshall as they
and marched off to school. This was to be no ordinary school sought to find ways to force the governor to step aside and allow
day. Already my parents and I had witnessed the gathering us to attend school. On Friday September 20, 1957, the Guard
crowds around the school as we tuned in to the morning news was removed following an injunction granted by a federal judge.
shows. We calculated, however, that the imagined threat was
bigger by far than any real element of danger based primarily on The following Monday, September 23, proved to be a day I
the fact that the guardsmen were there. We did not believe that can never forget. That day the nine of us were able to enter
they would stand by and allow the mob to harm me. As I walked school while the mob, which had gathered daily at Central since
the several blocks to the school I did not anticipate what I would the first day of school, was restrained by Little Rock policemen.
actually find waiting for me. Those familiar with the relationship between southern white
policemen and black citizens will no doubt wonder about our
Up close the mob seemed to move as one organism. I was sanity as these lines are read. As the mob became increasingly
surrounded immediately by a corps of reporters and agitated, and as soon as they learned that indeed we had gained
photographers; members of the mob jeered and shouted entry to the school, they began to overpower the lines of
obscenities as I alternately responded to questions from the policemen. I can imagine that a few of the policemen, unable to
media representatives and attempted to walk through the line of manage the cognitive dissonance generated by being asked to use
guardsmen. After a few tries it became apparent that their force against fellow white citizens to protect black kids, must
primary assignment was to keep me out of school. A reporter have resigned rather than continue in such a role. I have been
told me that another black student had arrived shortly before I told that this very thing happened that morning, although I do
got to Central and was sitting on a bus bench just across the not know it to be absolutely true. What I do know to be true is
street. There were so many people that it was difficult for me to that the police force was unable to prevent the mob from
see from where I stood so I walked over to the bus stop to find coming into the school to seek us out.
Elizabeth Eckford literally in a state of shock, waiting for a bus
to take her home. She had been befriended by a woman in the Before the mob was able to get into the school, however,
crowd, Grace Lorch, who was with her when I walked up. Later, we were spirited out through a basement garage in a couple of
while watching television news reports about the events of the Ford sedans. This all transpired because federal observers were
day, I saw the gauntlet Elizabeth had to walk that morning. She on the scene and, in conjunction with local officials, concluded
had arrived at the northern end of the school and walked the that we were in extreme danger and needed to be removed from

16
the school. In fact, we were rounded up very quickly that South to protect the rights of African Americans. On that
morning and instructed to move with dispatch to the basement morning, however, my primary thought was that maybe now I
where we were told to enter the cars and to put notebooks would not be killed for simply trying to go to school.
against the windows and keep down. The drivers were instructed
to keep moving no matter what and we sped out of the garage to For the first few weeks the soldiers were present in great
safety. numbers and stood outside my classroom and walked with me
from class to class. I was only a few years younger than they
I have no doubt that our lives were in jeopardy that were, but I could read the lines of concern on their faces as the
morning perhaps more so than at any other time during that drama continued to unfold. Their job was made somewhat easier
school year. The mob was incensed and we could hear the voices by the fact that several white students in each of my four classes
screaming for our blood. After we were taken away from the got up, and after giving me the benefit of their thinking about
school it was necessary for members of the assembled mob to my ancestry, my skin color, and my parentage, walked out
tour its interior to check to see that we had actually left the vowing never to return as long as I was there. I am convinced
premises. They promised to wreak havoc otherwise. Such was that they would have been the most troublesome foes had they
the power of those who openly defied the federal and local remained in school. They were the ones who would have
authorities in their unlawful assembly and criminal actions. On stopped at nothing to remove us from the school, dead or alive.
that same day a group of black news reporters was viciously A large number of those who did stay made life miserable for me
attacked after having been accused of distracting the mob so we and my eight colleagues. They fell under close scrutiny of the
could enter the school. I still cringe each time I see the newsreel 101st and many times I was warned by my guard to avoid certain
shot of Alex Wilson, reporter from the Chicago Defender, being areas where trouble seemed to be brewing.
hit with a brick wielded by one of the white men in the mob. His
quiet dignity in the face of raw hatred and irrational animosity, In spite of the presence of the 101 st, I had to contend daily
his unwillingness to run, his refusal to allow the mob to see his with white students bent on causing me grievous harm and
fear was inspirational to me in 1957 and motivates me still to injury. The nine of us had agreed to follow principles of
confront racism wherever I find it. nonviolence although we had only rudimentary training in this
area. We had met with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and spent
The school board was in disarray by this time. They had few some time with James Lawson and Glenn Smiley, but we were
answers for us in terms of when we could go to school without winging it to say the least. There was ample opportunity to
fear of being lynched. I believe that they simply threw up their practice, however, so we learned pretty quickly how to handle a
hands in the face of opposition from Governor Faubus to their variety of life-threatening situations. I learned not to focus too
planned desegregation of Central High School. Fortunately, in much attention on the vicious racial remarks awaiting me each
the wake of the school board's inability to mount a counter day.
strategy to Faubus and his minions, the NAACP was ready to fill
the obvious leadership void. Daisy Bates, then state president of For some reason it had always been clear to me that the
the NAACP, became our recognized spokesperson as we words spat out by the taunting students had actually very little to
continued to plan how and when we could get back to school. do with me. I had a lot of experience with this kind of thing
Ultimately it took military force; President Eisenhower was from my junior high school days. There were some boys who
required to call in the 101st Airborne Division of the United had discovered that they could start fistfights by talking about
States Army to open the school doors for us. each other's mothers. One would start the "dozens" with "Yo
mama wears combat boots," or some other such nonsense, and
On September 25, 1957, we entered Central High under the the dialogue would escalate to the point where one would feel
protection and guard of the 101st. It was one of the brighter intimidated by the verbal prowess of the other and the fight was
moments of the whole experience. Knowing that whatever on. My fear of getting hurt in a fistfight, combined with my
opposition arose would be met by the force and might of the unwillingness to participate in the verbal jousting, led me to
United States Army was more than comforting; it was a long develop a strategy that seemed to take the bite out of the
awaited statement that this country did indeed have to honor its demeaning (often very creative!) remarks directed toward my
commitment to treat me with respect and insure that my basic mother. I would simply invite the instigators home to meet my
rights were protected. That morning the nine of us had mother; she would, I explained, tell them if what they were
assembled at the Bates's home and piled into an Army station saying were truthful or not. This worked every time. Not one of
wagon while machine gun-mounted jeeps patrolled the area. them had the courage to take me up on the offer. So when the
When we were ready to leave, the jeeps took up positions in white kids at Central tried to upset me with their verbal
front of and in back of the station wagon and we formed a offerings, I was more than prepared. I concluded as well that
caravan that drove non-stop through the streets of Little Rock they lacked the truly creative skill necessary to play the "dozens."
with sirens announcing our coming. Soldiers led the way as we Although I never retorted when confronted by the more vocal
stepped out of the station wagon and headed for the school's students, I would form responses in my own mind and laugh to
front door. I felt very special at that moment. I was aware that myself when I felt I had won the exchange. I would say that my
something momentous was taking place that morning although record was a winning one; after all, I had been coached by the
years would pass before I would be able to truly grasp the overall best!
significance of what had happened. This was the first time since
Reconstruction that federal troops had been ordered into the

17
 There were far more serious encounters during that school didn't like to call home because I knew each time the phone rang
year, and I had to call on all the resources at my command to get my mom would worry that it was the call she dreaded - the call
through the experiences. One of my classmates, Jerry Tuley, was informing her that something terrible had happened to me.
a constant irritant. Wherever I was, Tuley contrived to be behind
me so he could kick, push, or hit me. Especially in gym class Although I did not learn about it until years later, my mom had
when we lined up to do calisthenics, Tuley would place himself received such a call from a person one school day who sounded
in line behind me and change all of the exercises into ways to very official and said that I had been beaten so badly that I
aggravate me. If we did jumping jacks, Tuley would kick forward would probably not survive the day. She had rushed up to
instead of sideways; if we played basketball, I could be certain Central, distraught and extremely anxious only to find that I was
that I would be tripped or the ball would be "passed" to me sitting in class without a scratch. My mom kept that information
when I wasn't looking. One day, the coach, an ex-marine type, to herself because she did not want me to worry about her.
called us to assembly and said that he had noticed several guys
picking on Roberts (he called us all by our last names.) He talked When she did tell me the story I was overwhelmed. I felt
about how unfair this was and that if anybody had anything responsible for her pain and anguish, which is why, she said, she
against Roberts he should challenge him to the mat. Very quickly waited to tell me. Using a mother's intuition, she had rightly
a long line formed with Tuley at the head. When I saw this figured that I would add a level of concern to my daily agenda
happening I thought that I probably would not make it out of that might make it too difficult for me to continue at Central.
the gym alive that day. I had no faith in the coach's ability to Ironically, I withheld information from her as well. While I could
control the group if they decided to tear me apart. I decided that not conceal wounds or bumps, I did keep much of what
if I did die, one other person would die as well. And it seemed happened to me on a daily basis away from her. She burned my
destined that the other person would be Tuley. hate mail, I lied about the pain I felt each day. We tried hard to
shield each other.
The group taunted and dared me to take the challenge. For
a few minutes I thought about appealing to the coach, but he My fear during this time was much larger than I could ever
seemed caught up in his own masculine way of thinking and have imagined. It was the kind of gut-wrenching fear that comes
probably had concluded that this was the only fair way to decide with a sense of powerlessness. I knew I had the option of saying
the issue. That is, if I proved myself on the mat then the unfair no, I don't want to go back up there, and that option called out
treatment would stop. I knew how illogical that was, but I didn't to me at times in ways that were hard to resist. On those days
think the coach would appreciate my reasoning. In any case, I when life at school had demanded more of me than I thought I
stepped onto the mat and Tuley was quick to come after me. He had to give, saying no had a sweet appeal. During the long
was wearing a set of military dog tags that day and as he Thanksgiving holiday weekend I visited my sister, Juereta, at
attempted to throw me down, I sidestepped him and threw him Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. My parents decided
down instead. In a flash I grabbed the chain holding the dog tags that it would be good for me to be away from Little Rock and
and began to twist it as hard as I could while holding him down. Reta agreed to stay at school so we could be together. That
We were about the same size, both tall, skinny kids, and I had proved to be a very therapeutic time for me. I was able to relax
little trouble keeping him face down on the mat. As the scuffle and release a lot of the tension that had built up during the
continued I was resigned to my fate, but as Tuley began to gasp, preceding weeks. It was hard to consider going back to Central
the coach stepped in and broke it up. He said that was enough and putting myself through all of that chaos, but in the end, I
and he hoped now that others would leave me alone or make a realized that it was not just about me and my need for comfort
manly challenge. I was perfectly content with the first part; and the absence of fear. It was about the need for change, real
however, I needed no more challenges. Needless to say, this did change in a social system more than demeaning to black
not change anything at all, but rather incited more fury from Americans. At age fifteen, my thinking was not fully developed,
those who wished me harm. but even then I knew that what the nine of us were doing
included accepting fear and still saying yes, I will return. During
A few days later I was standing at my gym locker after a that holiday I learned how portable fear really is; you can take it
shower during which I had to step over broken glass pieces and with you. It will go with you wherever you want to go and will
avoid jets of hot water turned toward me. Just as I was about to not become a barrier to anything you want to accomplish if you
open the locker door, somebody threw a combination lock from want it badly enough. Yes, I was afraid, but I also wanted to go
a very short distance and caught me flush on the left side of the back to Central. And I did.
head. I was stunned by the blow and went down on one knee
while reaching out to grab the locker door to keep from falling Not much had changed while I was away. Tuley was still
completely down to the floor. I remember thinking that if I did there along with others who followed his lead. One day shortly
hit the floor, whoever was watching probably had more mayhem after Thanksgiving, I walked into my homeroom with my radar
in mind. I struggled to keep my balance and stumbled out of the on full alert for anything that seemed out of the ordinary.
locker room into the coach's office and he ran out yelling at the Actually, it would be unusual if there was nothing to be
culprits who ran away. After my head cleared a bit I went back discovered. This day was no exception. A ray of sunlight
to the locker room to dress only to discover that all of my glancing off the seat bottom of my desk informed me that one
clothing was soaking wet. Somebody had used a water gun to of my classmates had emptied a bottle of glue for me to sit in.
shoot through the air vents filling my locker with water. That Without a word of recognition, I quickly moved my desk out
day I had to call home to have dry clothing sent up to school. I and replaced it with the one in front of my place in line. I then

18
put my desk in the vacated space and sat down to wait for the what would have happened if he had reported me to the
kid who sat in front of me. When he did come in, nobody said principal. I am certain that would have set the stereotypes flying.
anything because nobody knew anything. He was outraged when
he sat in the glue, and demanded that the person responsible be My English and history classes were taught by teachers who
punished. But, like I said, nobody knew anything so nobody probably would have preferred that the whole desegregation
could say anything. experiment be abandoned and the sooner the better. In these
classrooms I had to be especially alert and on guard because I
Algebra class was a haven for me. The teacher, Mrs. Helen could not count on the teachers to look out for me. Flying can
Conrad, let it be known from the first day that I was in class that openers or paper clips shot from rubber bands or thumb tacks
she would tolerate no nonsense from anyone who opposed my on my desk seat bottom did not elicit any warnings or
presence. She was emphatic about it and the class responded reprimands from these two stalwart educators. Instead I was told
accordingly. It was in this class also that I met Robin Woods, a to refrain from whining and, besides, they didn't see anything
white student who shared her textbook with me. Since my books anyway. I dreaded having to spend any time at all in these two
and other school supplies were routinely destroyed by fellow classes. Whenever possible, I would request permission to go to
students, I would come to class often with no supplies. Robin the library to do in-class assignments. This provided some relief,
simply pulled her desk next to mine and we shared her book - an although the librarian was a stickler about the rules that did not
act that did not win her friends or favor. Her act of kindness was permit doing in-class assignments in the library. I had to use my
interpreted as a violation of the social code that outlawed any imagination to come up with acceptable reasons for leaving class
contact between black students and white students, especially to be in the library. "To bask in the quiet reverie of a peaceful
black males and white females. Students who befriended any of corner" was not deemed an acceptable reason albeit an accurate
the nine of us were labeled "nigger lovers" and shunned by those one.
who wanted to preserve the old social order. Robin did not allow
that kind of thinking to interfere with her choices. I had not seen Part of the agreement we made with the school officials was
or talked to her for many years until 1994 when the two of us that we would not seek to be involved in extracurricular
were invited to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show along with activities. No sports, dances, choral groups, drama clubs, debate
six other members of the Little Rock Nine. We had a joyous teams, language clubs, or any other activity that would entail
reunion. social interaction. It was put to us that for reasons of safety we
should avoid such things. We knew of course that this was a way
I did not have the same kind of allies in other classes during of mollifying those parents and other concerned white citizens
that year. My Spanish teacher, Mrs. Bell, was in her last year who felt that our primary goal in coming to Central was to
prior to retiring and simply did not have the energy to cope with develop romantic attachments to white students. One of the
the madness taking place around her. In her class I had one of many printed cards passed around the campus showed a black
my more bizarre encounters with another student. One day the male and a white female figure hand in hand. No text, just the
student sitting across from me on the right stood his Spanish visual message that seemed to need no further explanation. In
textbook up on end as a shield and unfolded a penknife, pointed any case, we led very tangential student lives at Central that
the blade toward me, and glared. Why he chose that particular 1957-58 school year. Any lack of social interaction was made up,
day I do not know, but it was perhaps the most inappropriate however, by our continued participation in school activities at
time for him to threaten me in that way. Unknown to him, one Horace Mann.
of my friends had been urging me for several weeks to accept a
switchblade knife to carry with me while I was in school. He The feeling of acceptance and having a place with the
pleaded that he felt guilty about not being able to help if I got students at Mann helped tremendously in maintaining a balance.
into trouble at Central, but that my taking the knife would give We could and did attend school functions with our former
him some degree of comfort that I was protected if something classmates and felt less like social outcasts as a result. There were
should happen. I had declined repeatedly saying that that would a few ugly moments when some students (who had developed
be a violation of the nonviolence stance we had adopted. But, resentments based on their assumptions that the nine of us were
just the day before, I had said yes, I would take the knife. My developing attitudes of superiority now that we were in the
friend was visibly relieved and I justified my taking it because of "white" school) chose to verbalize their thinking. At a party one
his obvious elation. I don't know exactly why I even took the Saturday night somebody yelled across the room to ask me how
knife to school, but I happened to have it my pocket that day in to spell a word and I yelled back the correct spelling. This
Spanish class. Calmly, as if this were the most natural thing in seemed to infuriate one of the partygoers who began to badger
the world, I put my textbook on end (that day I also had a me about what he sensed to be my "know-it-all" attitude. What
textbook, go figure!) and pulled the switchblade out of my he didn't know was that my ability to spell came in part from
pocket. Returning his glare, I flicked the switch and the countless hours reading the dictionary and had nothing to do
menacing blade popped out and I pointed it in his direction. with my being at Central or my thinking that I could perform
This standoff lasted for a minute or so until he folded up his such tasks as a result of hanging out with white students. I left
penknife and put it away and I did the same with the the party early that night because I did not feel up to explaining
switchblade. I had no other occasion to show it off, and perhaps my point of view. In the main, however, such functions were
that student's report to his friends saved me from other relaxing social events that helped greatly in the release of
potentially dangerous encounters. I often wondered though, tensions built up each day at Central.

19
 After the year-end holidays, things settled down a bit approach in my direction. I was unarmed and unprepared for
although one in our group of nine, Minnijean Brown, was no any kind of combat especially with somebody who looked to be
longer enrolled at Central. The daily hostilities had escalated to a three times my size. As Macauley made his way to the spot
point beyond Minnijean's ability or desire to use nonviolence in where I stood, I decided to make eye contact with him to see if I
response. The simple truth is, we were all approaching that same could find a spark of humanity hiding behind his sinister gaze. I
point! Several white female students had made it their business held the laser like connection as my knees locked to keep from
to aggravate Minnijean calling her names and pushing her shaking. Macauley kept coming. We were close enough to rub
around in the halls. There had been a scuffle or two between noses when Macauley spoke for the first time. "Nigger, if you
Minnijean and some of her tormentors. Then one day in the weren't so small . . . " and his words trailed off as he dropped the
school cafeteria, faced with an especially nasty kid who pushed bat and walked away. Seemingly I had found the spark I was
his chair back when Minnijean attempted to pass his table, she looking for and it had prevented Macauley from bashing my
dumped her bowl of chili onto his head. After a brief period of head in with the bat. I stood there, in the same spot, for many
absolute silence, the cafeteria serving staff, the majority of whom minutes afterward. I was shaken. But I had learned something
were black females, burst into spontaneous applause. This very valuable. That something was that even though human
cheerleading notwithstanding, Minnijean was subsequently beings have the capacity to engage in evil acts, those same
expelled from school. Her departure encouraged the humans can, at times, respect and obey the impulse to override
troublemakers among the white students who immediately began evil intention. In Macauley's case it was a function of his notion
to chant "One down, eight to go!" of fair play, however twisted, that saved me from certain harm.
He would have had little compunction in using the bat against
The school officials could not nor did they try to make a someone who equaled him in size; my stature was my salvation.
rational case for kicking Minnijean out of school. Again, they
used the logic that if any of us fought back, it would simply "What do you do with your hatred toward white people?" This
make things too difficult to manage and it would be more was a question I considered very seriously, not only because it
dangerous for us. We were proud of Minnijean for doing what was asked with such confidence that such hatred did indeed
we all wanted to do so badly, and felt sorry that she would not exist, but also because the young white woman doing the asking
be with us for the remainder of the term. Some years later we seemed sincerely interested in knowing how I felt toward people
learned from Minnijean that she had felt at the time that she had like herself. She was a graduate student in sociology at UCLA,
let us down, but we rushed to assure her that was not the case; and I was at the time assistant dean of the UCLA School of
she had acted as our proxy in giving back a small measure of Social Welfare. I had come there in 1985 for what was to be a
what we had to endure. In fact, I had felt personally that I had seven-year stint as a school administrator. The interview was part
let Minnijean down by not defending her against a vicious attack of a research project exploring the dynamics of racism and I had
by one of the white male students. One afternoon as we waited been selected as a subject in part because of my background as
for transportation home from school, a white male student ran one of the Little Rock Nine. My answer seemed to disappoint
up behind Minnijean and kicked her hard in the rear. I was the young student. Having pondered the query for a brief time, I
standing next to her when it happened and could have retaliated said to her that I did not have hatred toward white people. Her
easily as the kid did not attempt to leave, he just glowered as if response startled me; she did not believe that I was telling the
daring me to do anything. I did not sleep well that night and truth and expressed her opinion that all black people must have
tried to rationalize my behavior by reminding myself of our some degree of hatred having experienced the levels of
decision to respond with nonviolence in the face of such discrimination and prejudice so prevalent in this country. While I
pernicious actions. It was not an easy task. For a long time after could, and did, agree with her about the adverse racial climate in
that incident I berated myself for being cowardly and for not the United States, I stated once more that I did not hate white
standing up in defense of black womanhood. people. Convinced that I was lying to her, she ended the
interview abruptly and left my office without further
Psychologically we were a battered crew. Just as we questioning.
withheld information from our parents, neither did we tell each
other everything that happened. In this way we acted to ease the I have thought about that episode often since that time, and
burden for each other. Some of us, by virtue of genetic have concluded that the young woman was unable to fathom
endowment, were able to confront the abuse and keep our how one could be black in this country and not have strong
psyches intact, and others used coping tools learned as a result negative feelings about all white people. Based on her knowledge
of having lived in the midst of bigotry for so long. My about my experience in Little Rock, she was certain that I,
psychological balance was tested severely one spring morning on perhaps more than some other black person, would have
the athletic playing field when I was confronted with a situation developed feelings of hatred. I am reminded as I write this of the
that suddenly developed around me. I had dressed in my gym question put to Miles Davis at one point in his career. A reporter
clothes and stood waiting for instruction from the teachers who asked him if he hated white people, and after a brief pause, he
were not yet out of the gym. All at once I found myself in the said, "Not all the time." Maybe it was something along these
center of a circle about thirty yards in diameter with all of the lines the UCLA student sought from me. In any case, she left
white kids turned to focus on me. As I scanned the group I saw with her perceptions intact and with the conviction that I was
Macauley begin to walk slowly toward me; he carried a baseball not honest about my feelings.
bat in one hand. There was absolute silence as Macauley, a senior
football player and naval reservist, continued his deliberate

20
Over these past forty years since the desegregation of Little when someone put their hands on me, that was an indication
Rock's Central High School, I have had plenty of time to reflect that we might have to fight, and given my fear of getting hurt in
upon my experience there in 1957. Without doubt, what the nine a fight, I would usually strike first and use enough force to make
of us experienced was hatred; hatred so raw and undisguised that sure that my opponent was disabled immediately.
it would have been hard to mistake it for anything else. Daily I
faced racism in its most virulent form as white high school More than that, however, I had been introduced to Christian
students used their creative abilities to define the term nigger in principles and was beginning to understand some of the
as many ways as they could. "Hey nigger, how much you weigh?" concepts fundamental to this way of thinking and being. As a
"If you fall into a bucket of shit I want to know how much to very young person I had been introduced to the Seventh-Day
dip out." "Nigger how do you know when to stop washing your Adventist (SDA) Church and its philosophy and belief system.
face?" "All niggers belong in Africa, why don't you go back In the late forties and early fifties before the family increased to
there?" I can still hear the sound of those voices over the span of seven siblings, my mom would take me and my two sisters to the
forty years as well as I can see the faces; faces distorted and SDA church. My dad was not a believer, and besides, he was at
twisted by the evil of racism into grotesque caricatures of human work during most of his waking hours. I learned about the
beings. And though I was surrounded by hatred, I chose not to golden rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto
respond in kind. you," and was captivated by the logic it contained. It made sense
to me only to do things to others that I would want done to me
Why, and how, could 1, a fifteen-year old kid make such a in return. The Ten Commandments resonated with me as well.
choice? This question finds its way into most of the interviews They were presented in the context of a loving God who wants
where my experience at Central is the subject, as the questioner, us to do those things that will keep us healthy and free from the
usually as a result of self-referent thinking, cannot possibly burdens of sin. The one thing I had difficulty with initially was
imagine anybody having enough restraint to ignore the taunting. the fact that Saturday was the Sabbath and the majority of my
I quickly respond by saying "It was not about ignoring; I was friends were members of Sundaykeeping churches. To resolve
fully aware of what was being said and made mental notes so I this dilemma 1 wound up going to church on both days for
wouldn't forget. At the same time, I was aware that what was many years so I was able to absorb much of what many
being said had nothing whatsoever to do with me." Even as a ministers had to say about Christianity. There were Baptist,
fifteen-year old I had learned that people tell you who they are Methodist, Presbyterian, African Methodist Episcopal, and
by what they say to you. The messages I was getting from many Sanctified churches for me to go to and be with friends. For
of the white kids at Central were clear, unmistakable statements some reason I was not attracted to the Catholic Church even
that they were infected with racist ideology. They did not like me though several of my friends were members. Overall, as a result
and wanted nothing to do with me. I figured too, that many of of my presence in these churches and their summer Bible
them were simply parroting what they had heard from parents, schools, my own Bible study, and what I sensed as a force much
relatives, friends, and neighbors, not realizing that by doing so larger than me, I developed a true connection with Christianity.
they were adopting those same perspectives. Most of all I knew I At the time I entered Central High I was a member of the Shiloh
could make choices based on who I was, I didn't have to choose SDA church in Little Rock. And while it might be assumed that
based on who was around me. the church was supportive of my role in the desegregation
efforts, I was told bluntly by the SDA minister that "You know
My choice to meet the evils of racism with calm, studied reason you have no business up there at Central, but as long as you are
was in part, a function of my basic personality. I was always a there, you might as well stay." At fifteen I was not sophisticated
fairly easy-going type, not known to explode in the face of enough to figure out what that was all about, and it was probably
irritating behavior or adverse circumstance. It took a lot to make just as well. (Not that I have any greater understanding of it even
me angry. A junior high classmate took great pleasure in now!) But, my understanding of Christian principles led me to
thumping my head whenever he saw me. Perhaps he was conclude that it was my Christian duty to confront the evils of
fascinated by the fact that I usually wore my hair cut very close racism, and where better to do that than at Central where there
to the scalp. In any case, he seemed to be unable to resist seemed to be an abundance of evil to confront.
sneaking up behind me and popping me with his middle finger
launched from his thumb. To avoid him I changed my route to For a long time before I had the opportunity to go to Central I
school, I entered the building by different doors each day, I had reasoned that either I had to change Little Rock in some way
asked him to stop, l appealed to the teachers, and finally, I told or live somewhere else. It made no sense to me that
him that if he did it again I would hurt him. This episode took discrimination was allowed by law and custom, and that human
place over several weeks so a lot of heat was required to get me energy was expended in such ludicrous ways to maintain a
to the boiling point. Despite my warning, he continued to harass system that maimed everybody's spirit. When I was about ten
me and I did indeed have to hurt him. I jabbed a sharpened #2 years old, I was riding in the back of a station wagon with my
pencil into his left bicep after his last thump to my head, mom and her catering partner, Lois Jordan. The two of them
effectively ending that madness. I suppose it was this kind of cooked and served more meals than I can count, and I was
awareness about my own reaction levels that allowed me to cope pressed into service often as a general helper. On that
successfully with the negative behavior from the kids at Central.
Usually, as long as I was not touched physically, I would not day Lois was driving us to a catering assignment. As we
bother to respond. In fact, I could give the impression that the approached a downtown intersection I noticed a traffic cop
other person did not even exist when I wanted to do so. But, directing cars and pedestrians. Suddenly, and for no apparent

21
reason, he ran over to the car and began banging on the left worked for canceled my services. The primary question from
front fender with his nightstick. He yelled to Lois that "she those who talked to me was: "Why do you want to go to our
better pay attention" to him and motioned for us to continue school?" After all, they must have reasoned, you have your own
through the intersection. Neither of the two adults in the car said school; there is no need to change anything now.
a word. My heart was racing and adrenaline was flowing
nonstop, but I knew better than to ask questions in that One woman in particular, Mrs. Montgomery, expressed a
moment. It was one of those times when black adults knew that feeling of disappointment that I would act in what she
what had happened was not justifiable, but nobody was allowed considered to be such an uncharacteristic way. My mom had
to complain. The white cop had the right to dent Lois's fender worked as a maid and cook for her for many years and she had
and treat us with disrespect in the process. Our rights were been a fairly generous customer for me, but my choice to attend
unclear at best. In my ten-year-old mind this had to change, or I Central was too much for her to bear. I was no longer
had to leave. I had no idea where I might wind up, but the acceptable. She could not, in good conscience, hire a black
prospect of staying in Little Rock under these conditions was person who harbored thoughts of being equal to her and her
too depressing to worry much about what my next stop would kind. She must have been somewhat aware of the possibility of
be. Of course, in reality, I had very little to say about where I my choosing to be part of the nine students because just a year
would live at that age, but the thoughts were comforting. or so before my uncle, returning from a stint in the Korean War,
had dropped by to visit her and refused to enter her home by the
One of the many amazing things about life in the American back door as was the usual custom. He had insisted that he be
South during this era was the seeming ease with which people allowed to enter the front door, and she had agreed. Perhaps she
interacted across racial lines as long as there seemed to be had been so stunned by his request that she did not have time to
mutual acceptance of the lines of social demarcation. argue with him. He was my mom's younger brother and was well
Expressions of friendship from both sides of the racial divide known to the Montgomery family. He reasoned that if he had to
were common if there were no challenges to the status quo. And fight to protect them, they could, and should, extend him the
of course there were the "good" white people defined by their courtesy of treating him with basic respect.
relative lack of overt bias in dealing with the black people who
cooked, cleaned, chauffeured, and cared for their white children. Perhaps a question even more poignant than why did I say yes, I
The black employees merited the label "good nigras." Neither will confront the system, is why were my parents so supportive
would think it proper social etiquette to speak of these labels to of my actions? They were black southerners who had not
each other although such appellations were sprinkled freely in demonstrated any desire to be on the front lines of social
the private conversations held on opposite sides of the social change. Clearly, we were not financially independent and were
arena. In the barbershop as I waited for my turn in the chair, I vulnerable to the kinds of economic pressures eventually
learned which white people were the good ones and how to tell brought to bear on many of the families of our group of nine.
if a given white person qualified for the label. Even though My parents were both working people, and my mom was skilled
nobody ever said as much to me about it, I sensed that this in the arts of fiscal magic, or so it seemed, which allowed them
sharing of information was considered essential for survival. to feed, clothe and house seven children with very meager
Along these same lines, the "bad nigger" was discussed in those financial resources. My dad was a shoemaker and worked at
barbershop conversations as well. It seemed to me that this Bottom Dollar shoe repair in downtown
character scared folk on both sides of the racial equation. He
challenged anybody and everybody because the threat he Little Rock, a white-owned establishment. He worked part-time
represented could destroy the delicate balance needed to at black-owned shops in the West Ninth Street district of Little
maintain the racist status quo. Rock and in a shop in north Little Rock as well. By the time I
started plans to go to Central, he had taken a job in food service
I have often thought that the so-called "bad nigger" syndrome at a Veteran's hospital, and continued to repair shoes part-time.
was reserved for those who found racism so onerous that they In fact, my dad worked all the time, or so it seemed. If he held
simply could not accept their own passive participation in a less than three jobs at any one time it would have been most
system designed to maintain an ideology that so demeaned black unusual. His diligence about work was matched only by his
people. The nine of us, in the eyes of many white people in Little dedication to the over consumption of alcoholic beverages. How
Rock, were indeed "bad niggers." In fact, there were rumors he could labor long hours for minimum wages and then spend
suggesting that we had been imported from northern cities most of the money for whiskey remains a mystery to me. We
especially to participate in the desegregation of Central. In the discussed this before his death in 1991, but his explanation left
minds of southern racists, there was no way to compute the fact much to be desired. Perhaps it was because my anger was so
that hometown "nigras" would deliberately choose to confront present that I was unable to appreciate his point of view. In part
and try to change the social reality that had been in place for so he pleaded the pressure of having been a black man in the south
long. In the year prior to my going to Central, I had developed a with only a high school education, but that did not explain to me
small business that included mowing lawns and raking leaves, why he further jeopardized the well being of the family by
and the majority of my customers were white. As long as I wasting needed funds, or for that matter, by placing himself in
presented myself as one who would work hard and stay within the untenable position of being intoxicated on the streets of
the bounds of socially prescribed behavior, I could look forward Little Rock.
to having as much work as possible. When it became common
knowledge that I was one of the nine, most of the whites I had

22
 One of the more distressing memories I have is of being My next-door neighbor, a black woman who worked in the
dispatched by my mom to scour the various hangouts where my cafeteria at Central, was very disturbed about my being involved
dad might be found on paydays. My job was to take whatever in the desegregation efforts because she thought her job was in
moneys were left and bring them home, with or without my dad. jeopardy. She confronted me one day and asked the same
Fortunately he was not an angry or belligerent drunk so there question I had gotten from some of my white customers: "Why
was never fear that we would be victims of an outburst of do you want to go to that school? You and the others are just
alcoholic rage. In fact, it was my dad who was often the target of messing things up!" I felt badly that she was so upset, and I was
my mom's anger and frustration. She would terrorize him using confused about her logic. It was not us messing things up, things
physical and psychological warfare, but none of it served to deter had been messed up for years, and I was trying to straighten
him from repeating the same behavior on the very next payday. things out. Fortunately, for me, she was a minority of one. There
Each time I think about the Casablanca, a West Ninth Street were probably others like her, but none of them expressed their
nightclub and favorite spot for my dad, I mentally review the feelings or thoughts openly to me.
scene where I try to sneak inside to find him and put my hands
in his pockets searching for money. I was afraid often that Most of the negative input I received that year apart from
something violent would happen to him as he stumbled home the constant barrage at school came in the form of hate mail and
from these drunken sprees. One night, while we still lived in the menacing telephone calls. My mom, as I said, burned most of
house on Izard Street, he came home very late with a bloody the mail, and she tried to screen all the calls. I managed to hang
face and my mom had to take him to the emergency room for on to some of the mail, and it is interesting that people from all
stitches in his chin. He carried a scar as proof of that night over the United States found time to put in writing their racist
through the rest of his life. ideas and thoughts. One enigmatic telegram I am still trying to
figure out read: "We can never forget what you did here" signed,
The contrast between my parents was stark. My mom was "A White Lady." The most positive spin would be that she liked
devoted to the seven of us and worked just as hard and long as what happened and will cherish the memory, but there are other
my father, but she did not abandon her responsibility through possibilities. One might, for instance, read her message as a
self-indulgence as he did. Catering was the primary arena of veiled threat.
work for my mom. She was a good cook and took pride in her
ability to plan, prepare, and serve meals. She would clean houses That 1957-58 school year was one filled with fear and
for white families as well, and spent time looking for bargains so anxiety for me, but I was prepared to return in the fall of 1958
that my siblings and I could have nourishing food and decent hoping that my senior year would end much like it had for Ernie
clothing. How she managed to provide so much for so many I Green, the lone senior in our group of nine. He had marched
simply do not know; I was there, but I missed some very across the stage to muted applause, but he had accomplished his
significant parts. Every Easter, for instance, we were all outfitted goal of obtaining his high school diploma. I assumed that I
with new clothes and shoes; new outfits for the first days of would march across the stage set up on the Central High playing
school each year; three meals every day with chicken and mashed field and receive my diploma without fanfare as well. I did not
potatoes on Sunday followed by vanilla wafers and Jell-O for anticipate that things would have changed for the better in so
dessert. My mom saw to it that we attended the symphony at the short a time span. After all, it was necessary to have a strong
War Memorial Auditorium, even though we had to sit in the military presence at Ernie's graduation and the other seven of us
balcony. She took us to church, and urged us to continue long were not allowed to attend out of concern about our safety.
after she had stopped going as a result of some conflict with How wrong I was to anticipate even that reality. Governor
other church members. And, perhaps most of all, in spite of her Faubus decided to use his authority to close all of Little Rock's
ongoing frustration about my dad's drinking, exhibited generally high schools for the entire academic year 1958-59. His action
a calm, relaxed demeanor in her dealings with us and other was congruent with ploys used by other southern governors in
people. Her message to us was "you can tell me, and it will be all their adoption of "massive resistance" policies. In the name of
right: ' segregation forever he was willing to sacrifice educational
opportunities for all of Little Rock's high school student
I think it was my mom's realization that I needed her to be a population, black and white alike.
pillar of strength that led to my parent's agreement to support
me fully in this endeavor. It was not about their political I was forced to leave Little Rock, and moved to Los
consciousness or social responsibility, but a mother's love and a Angeles to live with an aunt and uncle. This allowed me to
father's willingness to offer what he could that made it all continue in school without interruption and I graduated in 1959
happen. In fairness to my dad, I must say that there were times from Los Angeles High School. My younger sister, Beverly,
when he exhibited flashes of insight - as in the morning when he remained in Little Rock and sat out for an entire year before
walked up to meet me on that first day of school when I was resuming her studies. While some students also were able to
turned away by the National Guardsmen. And on other move to other states or to afford private schools closer to home,
occasions he did give evidence that he was interested in what many of my friends and others I knew about did not fare as well.
was happening to me each day at Central. But, it was my mom They lost the momentum needed to carry them through the year
who was able to override years of social conditioning and give of unstructured activity and wound up in dead-end jobs, joining
me the unqualified support I desperately needed to continue the military, falling into criminal activity, fathering or giving birth
facing the threat of harm each day during that school year. to children, marrying in some cases, and missing out on the
chance to obtain high school diplomas. Whether the governor

23
ever thought about these consequences, or whether he even That youthful perspective would be challenged over the
cared to know, remains a mystery to me. What is clear is that he years, and I learned many painful lessons about life in these
was willing to behave in ways consistent with an unbending United States. On one memorable occasion, when I was
allegiance to the myth of white superiority. apartment hunting in the West Adams district of Los Angeles, a
white landlord cursed at me and ordered me off his property.
I suppose it is important to note that I did have an opportunity Evidently his note inviting prospective tenants to step inside the
to confront the governor a few years later. In fact, on two foyer was meant for whites only. By this time I was married and
separate occasions, I charged him with malfeasance and the father of two daughters; not only did I have to contend with
described his actions as racist and felonious: once, in 1973 when racism directed toward me, but I had the responsibility of
we appeared together on ABC's Good Morning America show, guiding my new family through the roiling waters of racial
and again in Abilene, Kansas in 1987 where we took part in an hatred.
oral history project at the Eisenhower Presidential Library.
Eventually my interest in higher education led me to
Both times he refused to consider my point of view and complete work for a doctoral degree at Southern Illinois
defended his actions by saying that if he had not made the University at Carbondale, Illinois. Today, as a practicing
decisions he made in Little Rock in 1957, we would have had to psychologist, I have continued to work toward the elimination of
contend with someone worse than himself. Knowing that he racism by teaching others how to cope with difference. I do this
considered himself to be a political moderate, I took his in university classrooms, workshops, in my private practice, and
statement to mean that another governor would likely have been as of May 1998, as a desegregation consultant hired by the Little
more overtly racist. It is hard to imagine that the situation could Rock, Arkansas school district. Ironically, I am helping the
have been more untenable. school district comply with regulations that have their genesis in
a court order first iterated in 1956. We have until the year 2001
Leaving Little Rock to finish high school in Los Angeles to satisfy the dictates of the court, and 1 am hopeful, yet again,
was not a difficult choice for me to make in view of the that positive change will come of this effort.
governor's decision to close all of the Little Rock public high
schools rather than obey federal court mandates to desegregate. I But, whatever the outcome, I am convinced that in this
left with a feeling of relief that I would not have to face daily country we have the know-how to end all racist practices. If the
aggression at school, and a feeling of optimism about the future. Little Rock experiment finally succeeds, it will be but testimony
Life in Los Angeles was different from life in Little Rock in to this fact. If it fails, it means that we have yet to find the will to
many ways, but was also very similar in that black people were do what we must if this country is to live up to its vast potential.
facing uphill struggles in their quest for equality. Even so, my
optimism remained vibrant and strong; the war was not over,
but how hard would it be amid the palm trees and sunny days of
California?

24
 Civil rights leaders meet President Eisenhower, June 23, 1958. From left to right: Lester Granger, Martin Luther King, Jr., E. Frederic Morrow,
the president, A. Philip Randolph, Attorney General William P Rogers, Rocco C. Siciliano, and Roy Wilkins.

ROCCO C. SICILIANO AND

PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S MEETING
WITH AFRICAN-AMERICAN LEADERS

Introduction
Michael S. Mayer

Nineteen fifty-seven was a momentous year for civil rights. group. Moreover, the Eisenhower administration regard ed all
The Prayer Pilgrimage, a demonstration in behalf of civil rights interest groups with suspicion, and they viewed black
legislation, marked the emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a organizations in that light. According to the preva lent view
recognized national leader. Congress passed the first civil rights within the administration, such groups over dramatized single
legislation since Reconstruction, and Eisenhower sent federal incidents and demanded a dispropor tionate amount of
troops to enforce a court order desegregating Little Rock's attention. Indeed, unlike Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman,
Central High School. The following year, Eisenhower became Eisenhower refrained from assigning anyone full-time to attend
the first president to meet formally with a group of to issues relating to minorities. He preferred instead to have such
acknowledged African-American leaders. One of the aides most matters handled as they arose through the regular functioning of
responsible for bringing about the meeting was Rocco C. the executive branch.
Siciliano. The memorandum Siciliano wrote for the record
remains an essential source of information on that meeting. His Nevertheless, black leaders pressed for a meeting with the
account, which includes several documents from the period president from the earliest days of the adminis tration. Their
(including his memorandum), casts new light on a little-known, efforts began to escalate in 1955. A. Philip Randolph, the black
yet significant event. labor leader whose threatened march on Washington led
Roosevelt to create a Fair Employment Practices Commission in
The encounter was a long time coming. As Siciliano notes, 1941, requested that Eisenhower meet with a group of black
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell (D., N.Y.), among others, leaders. Although several aides in the White House considered
had repeatedly called on the president to meet with black leaders. the request, Eisenhower's heart attack ruled out any such
Perhaps it seems inconceivable today that an administration meeting at that time.
could go more than five years without sitting down to meet with
representatives of the African-American community. However, Randolph and King continued to press for a meeting with
previous administrations had never formally met with such a the president throughout 1956 and 1957. Their efforts had the

25
support of E. Frederic Morrow, the first African American to black leaders who would attend. Eisenhower's press secretary,
hold an executive post in the White House, and Maxwell Rabb, James Hagerty, issued a pointed denial. This episode marked the
the cabinet secretary who also had primary responsibility for final split between Powell and the president he had endorsed for
minority affairs. By June 1957, when Randolph suggested a reelection in 1956.
meeting with sixteen black leaders, the general idea of the
meeting had the support of William Rogers, the deputy attorney Eisenhower met with the black leaders on June 23, 1958.
general, as well. Morrow specifically recommended that the Siciliano describes a cordial meeting. In his memoirs, Roy
president meet with King, Randolph, and Roy Wilkins of the Wilkins remembered the meeting somewhat differently. Wilkins
NAACP, and Rabb supported the recommendation. recalled some tense exchanges between members of the
administration and members of the black delegation. This
In 1957, at ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Ghana, the difference may reflect different perceptions at the time, or it may
first independent nation of sub-Saharan Africa, King met Vice be the product of changing time and circumstance.
President Richard M. Nixon. King suggested that Nixon make a
tour of the American South. Nixon made no commitment but In any event, some points of contention did emerge. The
invited King to visit with him in Washington later that month. memorandum Siciliano wrote immediately after the meeting
After the Prayer Pilgrimage, Nixon met with King at the U. S. took place did not specifically characterize the meeting's tone,
Capitol on June 13, 1957. At the meeting, King proposed that but it did mention an exchange between Wilkins and Attorney
Eisenhower make a speech in the South calling for compliance General Rogers. Wilkins urged the administration to go back to
with the Supreme Court's decision striking down segregated Congress and ask for passage of what had been Title III of the
public schools. If the president could not do so, King argued, administration's civil rights bill. That provision, which would
Nixon should. Nixon countered with the suggestion that he have given the Justice Department authority to file civil suits on
might hold a meeting of the President's Committee on behalf of persons whose civil rights had been violated, had been
Government Contracts (a group Nixon chaired that had dropped in the interest of getting the rest of the bill passed. In
responsibility for eliminating discrimination in federal response, Rogers reminded Wilkins that he had accepted the
employment and in employment by contractors with the federal removal of Title 111. Rogers also remarked that, in presenting
government) in the South. King and Nixon got on well, and the the written statement the black leaders brought to the meeting,
meeting lasted for two hours, far beyond the scheduled time. In Randolph had commended the president for his efforts on
a memorandum to Sherman Adams, Eisenhower's chief of staff, behalf of African Americans; the written statement lacked such a
Rabb reported that Nixon "was very much impressed with preface.
Reverend King and thinks the President would enjoy talking to
him." Whatever disagreements may have existed, the meeting was
constructive. After the meeting, Randolph, who acted as the
At this juncture, Rabb left the White House, and Sherman spokesperson for the black group, emerged to tell reporters that
Adams asked Siciliano, who had served as an assistant secretary the black leaders had been "greatly impressed by the general
of labor from 1953 to 1957 and had recently joined the White attitude of the President concerning civil rights." From the
House staff as special assistant to the president for personnel administration's perspective, the whole affair was a success, but,
management, to review the long-standing request by black as Siciliano observed to the president, "even if success in this
leaders to meet with the president. Siciliano liked the idea of area is built on sand."
meeting with a group of black leaders. Moreover, the indictment
on charges of income tax evasion of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., The meeting did reveal the administration's frustration at
the administration's most vocal black ally, might have made not receiving credit for what it regarded as a strong record on
others in the White House more receptive. Reaching out to civil rights. The meeting also provided a glimpse into black
other black leaders made good sense. Siciliano called King to frustration at the slow pace of desegregation and what black
discuss arranging a meeting. leaders regarded as an inadequate response by the
administration. In that respect, the meeting anticipated the
King met in the White House with Siciliano, Morrow, and tone of the 1960s, when black impatience with the halting
Deputy Attorney General Lawrence E. Walsh on June 9, 1958. pace of change clashed with growing frustration on the part of
Their discussion focused on which black leaders would be whites with what they considered a failure of blacks to
invited. Morrow suggested a meeting with King and Randolph recognize or appreciate what had been achieved.
only, notably excluding Powell and Roy Wilkins. The
composition of any such group would inevitably arouse The allusion to Lemley's decision in the statement by the
jealousies and infighting among black leaders, and King black leaders refers to a decision by Federal District Judge
indicated that it would be impossible for him to attend the Harry J. Lemley in June 1958 granting a request by the school
meeting if Wilkins were excluded. Significantly, King did not board to delay the implementation of desegregation in Little
press for the inclusion of Powell. In subsequent contacts, he Rock by two and a half years. Although the decision caused
asked the administration to include Lester Granger of the black leaders considerable consternation, it turned out to be a
National Urban League. minor bump in the road; the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned Lemley on August 18, 1958.
Powell, furious at his exclusion, issued a statement
indicating that he had instigated the meeting and had named the

26
 Thus, the incident at Little Rock continued to cast a Eisenhower's meeting with a handful of black leaders did
shadow over race relations, even after the last federal troops not mark a major departure in civil rights policies, but the
had been withdrawn and the National Guard was returned to exchange of views and grievances represented an important
state control. The reference to Lemley's decision shows that step in the emerging encounter between the federal
Roberts's and Siciliano's reminiscences - two very different government and African-American aspirations.
people writing from very different perspectives - are related.

The meeting with black leaders came less than a year

after the intervention at Little Rock.

"Even If Success in This Area Is Built on Sand"

Rocco C. Siciliano

Martin Luther King was twenty-nine years old when I called On June 9, 1958, Morrow and I met with the Reverend
him in Alabama to ask if he would like to come to the White King in my office to discuss the makeup of the group and
House to discuss his request for a meeting with President what they hoped would be accomplished. Also present was
Eisenhower. The recent departure of another White House aide Deputy Attorney General Lawrence E. Walsh. King was
resulted in my being asked to handle a bubbling civil rights issue careful in speech but direct and purposeful. Morrow's
- whether or not the president should meet with a group of black judgment was essential in this discussion, for he understood
leaders. As the president's special assistant for personnel who the key black leaders were as well as the political
management, my normal responsibility was broad enough: the realities involved. Congressman Powell had recently been
concern and management of all federal civilian employees - some indicted for income tax evasion and, though a proclaimed
2.3 million. This was in the days when there were only eight or supporter of President
so special assistants to the president, and who were still
following an earlier injunction, carried over from President Eisenhower, was considered an unreliable political
Franklin Roosevelt's days - do your duties but with "a passion maverick. Without any real discussion, King quietly agreed
for anonymity." that Powell would not be invited. It was clear that King did
not want Powell present. Other names emerged and a
In answer to my question, Martin Luther King immediately tentative agreement developed as follows:
responded: "at your pleasure." President Eisenhower had been in
office more than five years and had never had a meeting in the A. Philip Randolph, International President,
Oval Office with a group of black leaders. First there were Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
requests; then they became demands. The demands were usually
choreographed by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, the Roy Wilkins, President, National Association for
powerful political leader and articulate advocate whose forum the Advancement of Colored People
had gone far beyond Harlem, his Congressional district. After a
brief but careful review of the files, I recommended to former Lester B. Granger, Executive Secretary, National
New Hampshire Governor Sherman Adams the need for such a Urban League
meeting. Adams, the brilliant and selfless White House chief of
staff, hardly hesitated in allowing me to pursue the matter. We We agreed to have another meeting in two weeks, in order
had one big question: Who was to be invited? Congressman to confirm the choices after circumspect checking.
Powell was leading the cries for such a meeting. The White Circumspection was not, of course, possible, for word leaked
House discussion involved myself, Governor Adams and Fred almost immediately. Powell promptly took credit for calling the
Morrow. Morrow was a very distinguished black lawyer, the first meeting and naming the participants. He was, of course,
black to ever serve in a professional position in the White outraged that he was being excluded. White House press
House. He was little known publicly, though respected by most secretary, Jim Hagerty, had to issue a denial of the Powell role.
sections of the highly diversified black community. Morrow was
a true pioneer in the American black civil rights movement. He Both Morrow and I received a telegram bombardment to
has told his own story, but his impact on American civil rights add other representatives, for example, the president of the
progress has yet to be appreciated. National Council of Negro Women.

27
 At that second meeting, we were joined by Assistant uppermost in their minds would be a request for a White House
Attorney General for Civil Rights W. Wilson White. Although conference on civil rights to be preceded by a presidential
White was not to attend the White House meeting with the pronouncement on the dangers of continued segregation. The
president, he was to report back to the new attorney general, president listened but made no comment.
William P. Rogers. Our primary purpose was to confirm the
selection of those to attend the session. Morrow and I quickly In our pre briefing meeting, the three of us had agreed that
agreed with King as to those we had earlier identified. the president should be warned against the use of two words,
which he had used in a public appearance before a black
There were to be no changes or additions. There had been audience in a D.C. hotel several weeks earlier. The black press
no "ferocious infighting" in the White House, as characterized had lashed out at him. I looked to Bill Rogers to speak. He
by Taylor Branch in his Pulitzer-prize winning book Parting the remained silent and for good reason. Finally, I spoke up. "Mr.
Waters. Governor Adams had earlier accepted our President, there are two words that generally cause some
recommendations without any question. The choices seemed negative reaction, that I might suggest you not use when you
fairly obvious from the start. Randolph was already a legend in meet them. These two words are `patience' and `tolerance."' He
the American trade union movement. This I knew from my looked at me even flushed, I think and then barked, "Well,
earlier four years service as assistant secretary of labor. Then in Siciliano, you think I'm going to avoid good English words!"
his seventieth year, Randolph was the long-time, undisputed (Incidentally, he usually called his White House aides by their last
spokesman - "The Old Lion" - for change and integration in the name. A military habit, I presume.) I struggled on, saying that
business place. Roy Wilkins, the oft times fiery orator of the this would help avoid causing the wrong reaction. He did not use
NAACP, brought a necessary balance to the burning civil rights them or even suggest their meaning. I did not say that after 350
issues of the day. Granger was a strong and forthright advocate years in America black citizens were tired of hearing these words
of black economic progress. used by well meaning white citizens. I was not that bold.

At this meeting, we also agreed to the format of the The meeting began promptly at 10 a.m. Introductions were brief
presidential session. The meeting was set for thirty minutes. and the atmosphere was formal. A. Philip Randolph was the
Each leader would speak for approximately five minutes. The nominal leader of the group and spoke first. In his magnificent
remaining time was to be left for oral exchange. Neither Morrow resonant voice, he briefly described the history and present
nor I would expect to talk. As the Justice Department head, status of the black citizen. Each of the speakers spoke without
Rogers would do so if he pleased. notes. Though they had a prepared statement, given to the
president by Randolph, it was not referred to. One man's
On the morning of the meeting, June 23, 1958, Attorney eloquence was exceeded by the next man's. It was an impressive
General Bill Rogers, Fred Morrow and I met in advance for a performance. I violated an unwritten Oval Office rule which was
final review prior to briefing the president. We did not expect no note taking in this kind of meeting. I wrote on an envelope
verbal fireworks but knew that specific proposals would be that I happened to be carrying. Then I prepared a memorandum
made. l knew that the black leaders were regarding this White describing what took place at the meeting. To the memorandum
House meeting as an epochal event. We went in to brief I attached the statement the black leaders presented to the
President Eisenhower. He was expectant, appearing to recognize president. These two documents, preserved in the Eisenhower
that this was no ordinary meeting. He did not seem entirely Presidential Library at Abilene, Kansas, are reproduced on the
comfortable about what would be expected of him. As always, following pages:
his essential decency was evident. I explained that the men were
going to present a program of action which they hoped he would
agree to. Though unfamiliar with the details, we knew that

28
Rocco C. Siciliano memorandum (June 24, 1958) of the meeting between President Eisenhower and
African-American leaders at the White House on June 23, 1958. Attached to the memorandum is the
statement the four black leaders submitted to the president during the meeting.

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

June 24, 1958

MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILES

Subject: Meeting of Negro Leaders with the President - June 23, 1958

The President met with: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President,
Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Philip Randolph, International

President, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters

Roy Wilkins, President, NAACP

Lester B. Granger, Executive Secretary,

National Urban League

Also present were Attorney General Rogers, Frederic E. Morrow and myself.

After introductions, Mr. Randolph, as the spokesman, laid before the President the attached statement. He
prefaced the written statement by commending the President strongly for the many efforts he has made to
advance the political and economic status of the American Negro. He said that they would not be present at
the meeting if they did not have the firm conviction that the President was a man of courage and integrity who
had shown leadership and brought about accomplishment in this field. He spoke strongly and favorably about
the President's action in the Little Rock episode. He then proceeded, beginning on page 4, to read the nine
recommendations contained in the statement, including the closing paragraphs. Following this, he asked Dr.
King to speak.

Dr. King said he wanted to comment about the first three of the recommendations and that, as a minister, he
felt these recommendations were designed to help mobilize the emotions of the spirit which, in turn, would
aid in the fight for abolishment of segregation. He said that a Presidential pronouncement as called for in the
first recommendation would give a moral boost to the Nation. Speaking of the second recommendation, which
calls for a White House conference, he is convinced, he said, as a southern Negro, that the social, political and
economic reprisals which exist today in the South prevent the goodwill of white Southerners from being
expressed. He felt such a conference would provide the forum for expressions of such goodwill. In urging
action on the third recommendation, he said that wider dissemination of government information on this
subject would provide the factual basis needed to educate further the communities and localities throughout

29
the South and the Nation. He felt that without action along the lines of these three recommendations there
would be a continuation of delaying tactics. He agrees that morals cannot be legislated (only education and
religion can do this, he said) and that internal attitudes are hard to change, but that action is possible to
attempt to control the external effects of such attitudes.

Mr. Wilkins emphasized the President's own record in the field of improvement of Negro rights, recalling the
fact that Armed Services integration is now about complete, and that the President was responsible for the
passage of the Civil Rights Bill last year. He then spoke on behalf of recommendation No. 4 and urged that the
Administration seek again the inclusion of Part III which had been deleted during the heat of the debate last
Fall. This is needed in order that more legal authority be provided the Attorney General. He said that the
Justice Department was "inhibited, so it is reported" because they lack this necessary statutory authority.
Wilkins then said he was "dismayed, distressed and angered" by the Lemley court decision of last Saturday.
He said that the picture had been best described by a porter in New York City as he was leaving to come to
Washington. The porter said, that the decision has "given them a map, " meaning that this decision has
explained to the segregationists how best to proceed to defeat school integration. He then spoke of the
necessity of protecting the right to vote, explaining that in one community in the South where a college was
located, Negro faculty members with Masters and Doctors degrees were unable to qualify to vote because of
the rigid tests administered by local registrars. He felt that when more Negros were able to vote in the South
this would bring about peaceable change and adjustment. He said that the right to vote was the "most
effective and bloodless way" to solve this whole problem. He said that it was natural for a colored person who
felt aggrieved in a local community to want to turn to Washington, the White House and the President for aid.'
He then related to the President an incident which occurred during the President's visit to Oklahoma City last
Fall in which eight high school science scholarship winners were presented to the President. One of them was
a colored girl, he said, for whom this would never have been possible if integration had not taken place in that
city in recent years.

Mr. Granger recalled to the President that, in his lifetime, he has seen three different phases of Negro activity
in the field of civil rights: during his World War I days, during the time of the depression, and today. He said
he had not known a period when the bitterness of the Negro showed "more signs of congealing" than today.
Mr. Granger continued, saying the Negro had been led to believe that there was hope and that progress was
being ma de when, suddenly, it appears stopped. He said this was the reason for the reaction by the Negroes
at last month's Summit meeting to the President's remarks, and because of which he assumed the President
might be disappointed. He referred to Agnes Meyer's recent article in the Atlantic Monthly, calling her a
person of "goodwill, even though not always of good judgment. " He said that in this article she had
"misquoted" (meaning misstated, I believe) the New York City School Board efforts. He said this type of article
only brings about more confusion by well-meaning white people. He commended the kind of leadership
exhibited by Dr. King in the South, who, he said, "kept alive a free spirit. "

The Attorney General commented that the reason, in his mind, for any bitterness which might exist, is the
very fact that progress is being made today, pointing out that in prior years speeches were made but progress
did not follow, and so hope never really built up. Now, with the progress of the past recent years, some of the
hopes have become realized; occasional setbacks or delays should be regarded only as temporary. Mr. Rogers
said that we are defending the laws by aggressive court action whenever and wherever it appears that the
legal facts are sufficient to bring them to a successful conclusion. He emphasized that it would be extremely
unwise and damaging to institute court action in every individual complaint situation. He then said that he
thought the statement lacked a written preface of the type which Mr. Randolph had just made orally
(commending the accomplishments of this Administration) and gave no appearance of appreciation for the
gains of recent years. He also recalled Mr. Wilkins' willingness to abandon Part III of the proposed Civil Rights
Bill during the heat of last year's debate.

The President then spoke, saying that he was extremely dismayed to hear that after 5 1/2 years of effort and
action in this field these gentlemen were saying that bitterness on the part of the Negro people was at its
height. He wondered if further constructive action in this field would not only result in more bitterness.

Mr. Granger, seconded by Mr. Randolph and Mr. Wilkins, hastily assured the President that the bitterness
they referred to was not directed to the President or the .Administration but only to the communities in which
apparent though slow progress was being made and then stopped; that the bitterness consisted of individual
reactions to obstacles met.

30
The President spoke forceably about the need for diligent and careful perusal by the Federal Government of
any actions in this field. He did not comment in any way on the Judge Lemley decision or the Little Rock
affair. He said he did not propose to comment and knew they did not expect him to -on the recommendations
which he had before him, but said that he would obviously be glad to consider them. He then said that there
might be at first blush some value in convoking a White House conference, but added that he was doubtful if
it would be productive of anything.

Mr. Randolph answered this last observation by saying he thought the President might give it a high moral
tone, to which the President replied there was only so much any President could do in opening such a
meeting. Mr. Rogers agreed with the President and said this could only serve as a sounding board for the
reaffirmation of previously announced positions by spokesmen (acknowledged and otherwise) in this area. Mr.
Rogers emphasized again that the President had directed him to take aggressive actions in all matters
affecting the Federal authority. The President agreed and then emphasized the importance of voting rights.

The meeting concluded with the President indicating his appreciation of meeting with the group.

In the press conference which followed the meeting, it appeared to me that the positions taken by the four
leaders were basically very honest and favorable recitals of what had occurred at the meeting. The news
accounts speak for themselves, but I took note of one significant question asked by Louis Lautier (only Negro
member of the National Press Club Association) of Mr. Wilkins: he asked what had occurred in the meeting
which had changed his attitude. He repeated this to mean Mr. Wilkins' attitude toward the President from the
position taken a month ago by him. Mr. Wilkins was very indignant and didn't really respond to the question.
Efforts were made to bait Wilkins in the press conference inasmuch as he seems to be the most militant of the
group, but I would say that he held himself under control.

Rocco Siciliano

31
 A STATEMENT TO PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

The process of peaceful advancement toward equality of citizenship for all Americans has reached a critical
turn.

New economic and cultural forces in our nation's life are changing the pattern of Negro-white relations. Any
effort to impede this process will affect unfavorably all American society. Frequently tension is an inherent
element of basic social change. Thus it is not a matter of choice between an unjust status quo with social
peace, and integration with tension. The nation can adopt forthrightly a bold program which moves through
tension to a democratic solution; or it can depend upon evasion and compromise which purport to avoid
tension, but which in reality lead the entire society toward economic, social and moral frustration.

Years of educational, legislative and legal effort to bring the status of Negro Americans in line with the
guarantees of the Constitution have led, inevitably, to the determination by our highest court that enforced
racial segregation and its attendant discrimination in publiclyowned facilities is morally and legally
indefensible.

At every intermediate stop along the way to this conclusion bitter opposition was encountered, but justice and
common sense have heretofore prevailed; the unity of the nation has been strengthened; its moral fibre has
been renewed.

Today, however, the last-ditch resistance to the application of principles long since accepted by most of the
nation has assumed a significance beyond the question of racial justice, important as that is. The welfare of
the whole country is involved in the issues with which this presentment is concerned.

Presently there is manifest a pattern of calloused disrespect for law. Moral values have been corrupted. Mob
violence has emerged as an instrument to maintain the status quo.

The basic constitutional freedoms of speech, association, assembly and redress of grievances, vital to all
Americans, have been perverted, abridged or denied through arbitrary practices or cynical legislation in the
states.

State and local office holders of high and low station and national legislators, all sworn to uphold the
Constitution, have incited to dis. obedience of the law and have campaigned nationally for support for their
position. In community after community, fear of reprisals or of scorn has reduced to a whisper the reproach a
moral people should feel for immoral behavior.

It is no secret that the foreign relations program of our nation has been hampered and damaged by the
discriminatory treatment accorded citizens within the United States, solely on the basis of their race and
color. In our world-wide struggle to strengthen the free world against the spread of totalitarianism, we are
sabotaged by the totalitarian practices forced upon millions of our Negro citizens.

These citizens have exhibited unparalleled patience in the face of decades of proscription and persecution.
They have placed unfaltering trust in the guarantees of the Constitution and in the orderly processes of the
courts. Today they are frustrated and angry. In their resentment and despair, an increasing number of them
are questioning whether their forbearance and respect for orderly procedure are rewarding.

The decision of Federal Judge Harry J. Lemly reversing school integration in Little Rock and postponing
further effort until 1961 has shocked and outraged Negro citizens and millions of their fellow Americans. This
opinion is being construed, rightly or wrongly, as a green light to lawless elements in their defiance of Federal
authority.

We have come to this pass largely because we have not recognized that adjustments of the magnitude called
for in this vast social change cannot be undertaken effectively without planned effort of similar magnitude. We
cannot combat pneumonia by prescribing an occasional tablet of aspirin and a goblet of goodwill.

32
Just as our Government has moved with pace and imagination to meet the revolution of rising expectations in
other parts of the world, so it is essential that similar imagination and intelligence »» and courage »» be shown
by our Government in meeting the results of the revolution of rising expectations at home.

This is not to say that measures taken by this Administration up to now have been without value. The nation
was immeasurably strengthened in its understanding of the gravity of the constitutional issues by the action
taken at Little Rock last September to uphold the sanctity of the orders of Federal courts. The Chief
Executive's personal support of efforts to eliminate segregation in the armed services and on service
installations has been beneficial, although pockets still remain which should be wiped out. The enactment of
the 1957 Civil Rights Act with the active support v of the Administration was a significant advance.

Valuable as these and other measures have been, they have not as yet clearly provided a planned and integral
approach to the multitude of tough problems which must be solved along the way. It is in the hope that these
essential objectives may thereby be promoted that we suggest and urge the adoption of the following program:

1.The President of the United States should declare in a nationwide pronouncement, prior to September, that
the law will be vigorously upheld with the total resources at his command.

2.Much emphasis has been laid on the need for restoring communication between white and colored
Southerners who are troubled by a common fear of reaction. The President can well set the example in this
matter by convoking a White House Conference of constructive leadership to discuss ways and means of
complying peaceably with the Court's rulings.

3.Information, resources and advice of the appropriate government agencies addressed to the problems of
integration should be made available to all officials and community groups seeking to work out a program of
education and action.

4.The President should request both parties to lay aside partisanship so that the Congress can enact a civil
rights bill which will include Part III originally in the 1957 bill, in order that constitutional rights other than
voting rights may be enforced by the United States Attorney General. Lack of adequate and clear statutory
authority has made the Federal Government a mere spectator in the disgraceful maneuverings at Little Rock.

5.We urge the President to direct the Department of Justice to give all legal assistance possible under the law,
including the filing of a brief as a friend of the court and appearance of counsel, in the appeal from the
Lemly decision in the Little Rock case.

6.The President of the United States should direct the Department of Justice to act now to protect the
right of citizens to register and vote. In the nine months since the enactment of the 1957 Civil Rights
Act, overt acts have been committed against prospective Negro registrants in some areas and numerous
complaints have been submitted to the Department, but, to date, not a single case has reached a court
of law. Unless im mediate action is undertaken, thousands of Negro citizens will be denied the right to
cast a ballot in t 1958 elections.

7.The President should direct the Department of Justice to act under existing statutes in the wave of
bombings of churches, synagogues, homes and community centers; also in the murderous brutality
directed against Negro citizens in Dawson, Georgia, and other communities.

8.In order to counteract the deliberate hamstringing of the new Civil Rights Commission, the President
should recommend to the Congress the extension of its life for at least a full year beyond its present
expiration date.

9.The President should make it clear both in statement and in act that he believes in the principle that federal
money should not be used to underwrite segregation in violation of the federal constitutional rights of millions
of Negro citizens; and that this principle should be applied whether in matters of federal aid to education,
hospitals, housing, or any other grants-in-aid to state and local governments. In support of national policy,
the Federal Government should finance continuation of public schools where state funds are withdrawn
because of integration.

33
In addition to the enumerations above, Negro citizens are deeply concerned over the efforts to curb the
appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, particularly the restrictions proposed in H.R. 3, a bill, which is
both anti-civil rights and anti-labor.

Widespread discrimination against Negroes in employment persists in industry, business and government and
has been underscored by the general rise in unemployment. The problem is highlighted by repeated failures of
efforts to enact national fair employment legislation and by the demonstrated ineffectiveness of administrative
directives.

The need continues for vigorous enforcement of the Federal policy of non-discrimination in government
employment. The national government can set an example by removing the barriers which have limited the
employment of Negro citizens in all U. S. installations abroad, including the foreign service.

These recommendations are made in the belief that tensions between citizens in our country, and the
anxieties of citizens themselves, will be eased and eventually erased if a clear national policy and a program of
implementation are established by the Chief Executive of the nation.

A. Philip Randolph
Lester B. Granger
Reverend Martin Luther King
Roy Wilkins
June 23, 1958

In today's light, the statement appears as a moderate yet detailed description of the concerns of the most responsible leaders of the American black
community. It is a document, though topical in a few places, which has seen little public attention and is rarely cited in present day histories. Nevertheless, it
still has a strong relevance to the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Though deference was paid to Randolph by all, it was obvious to me that the Reverend King was the intellectual soul of the group. I was struck by his
physical appearance and manner. Though of near medium height, he somehow made himself taller. After several meetings and even more conversations, I
found myself describing him by using one word: controlled. His eloquence flowed easily, but personally I found him most effective in simple and direct
communication. Young as he was, he was the ideological linchpin who held the group together. If there was ever any doubt, the White House meeting clearly
established Martin Luther King as the foremost national leader of black America.

The president was absorbed by these speakers, and he listened carefully, asked questions. He had the ability to concentrate completely as each one
spoke. He paid attention to every word. This is what, I believe, made the meeting such a success. They were obviously pleased by the reception; as a result the
meeting lasted well beyond the thirty minutes - nearly fifty minutes.

Following the meeting I witnessed the press conference that was held in the Fish Room near the president's office. As a result of that observation I sent a note
to President Eisenhower. That memorandum dated June 25, 1958 and also on file at the Eisenhower Library, is reproduced on the next page:

34
Rocco C. Siciliano memorandum (June 25, 1958) for President Eisenhower regarding some of the reaction to the
president's meeting of June 23, 1958 with the four African-American leaders.

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

June 25, 1958

MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT

As an aftermath of your meeting with the Negro leaders, you may be interested in the following observations:

1. The Negro leaders were more than enthusiastic about their reception, the length of time granted for the meeting, the
willingness to be heard and the willingness to speak, and the intense and sympathetic attention given them.

2. Immediately afterwards, they met with the press. Their accounts of the conference were faithful and honest. After much
give-and-take, with repeated attempts to evoke criticism from the members of the group (particularly from Mr. Wilkins), a
comment was made that they appeared to have been "brainwashed. " Mr. Louis Lautier, only Negro member of the
National Press Club, finally asked Mr. Wilkins (with some sarcasm), just what had occurred in the meeting which brought
about the change in Mr. Wilkins ' attitude from that of a month ago. Mr. Wilkins, visibly irritated, made no real response.

3. After a number of conversations with knowledgeable people, I am convinced that this meeting was an unqualified
success -- even if success in this area is built on sand.

Rocco C. Siciliano

In my judgment, the significance of this meeting has been times: the 1920s, '30s, '40s and `50s. Practically all that time he
generally overlooked by historians. Taylor Branch is a was in the military service, never a seed ground for progressive
conspicuous exception, devoting several pages to the meeting. thought. Prejudice was not part of his makeup and it was clear
Its importance is simple to state: for the first time access to the that he would not tolerate any such attitude from those who
president's office was given to a black leaders' group, something worked in his presence. Obviously, he had a consummate
that, unbelievably, had never happened before. Members of the understanding of human behavior. In his long life he had
business community, employee organizations, educators, church witnessed too much not to know the frailties, the evils yet, of
groups, almost any other civic public organization had always some in the human family. He had seen the furnaces of the Nazi
had easy communications with presidents of the United States. concentration camps. He was intimately familiar with racial
Yet, for leaders of 10 percent of our population who were "of discrimination in the U.S. Army and had immediately taken
color" obstacles to such access had been placed. It is hard to action to finally dissolve it as well as segregation in all its forms
realize today that this change has only occurred in the lifetime of in the District of Columbia upon becoming president. His own
today's senior citizens. writings are eloquent testimony to his fundamental belief in the
equality of man. I saw him shake his head in disgust over a story
What happened after the meeting? No direct actions were taken of racial discrimination involving a black American he knew and
by the President, but the mere holding of the meeting in his respected. His fundamental fair
office gave much needed national attention to the concerns of
the most important American minority. The meeting was ness was enveloped by a pragmatic approach of what he thought
tangible evidence of President Eisenhower's personal concern. American society - as a whole - would accept in the 1950s. We
Judged in this fashion, the meeting was a success. In today's can disagree as to the role of the president - any president - in
world this meeting would be called the Black Leaders' White matters of moral leadership, but here, too, President Eisenhower
House Summit Meeting. Like so many summit meetings its had an answer. Words spoken by him in 1959 say it best: "if it is
success would have to be measured in many indirect ways, ways going to be true to its own founding documents [the United
not subject to easy quantification and not accepted by all. States government] does have the job of working toward the
time when there is no discrimination made on such
It should be remembered that where action could be taken, inconsequential reason as race, color or religion." And he then
President Eisenhower moved quickly and effectively. For added, "Law is not going to do it. We have never stopped sin by
example, after the Supreme Court spoke and struck down school passing laws; and in the same way, we are not going to take a
segregation in 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education) the President in great moral idea and achieve it merely by law."
1957 sent, without hesitation, federal troops into Little Rock in
order to enforce the legal integration of nine black students into Education is the answer to changing the hearts of the people,
Central High School. President Eisenhower often said. It can still be said today.

Later evaluation of the Eisenhower attitude on civil rights

sometimes fails, in my judgment, to recognize the times - his

35
 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Ambrose, Stephen E. Eisenhower: The President. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.

Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. New York: David McKay, 1962.

Blossom, Virgil. It Has Happened Here. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959.

Burk, Robert F. The Eisenhower Administration and Black Civil Rights. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984.

Eisenhower, Dwight D. The White House Years: Mandate for Change, 1953-1956. New York: Doubleday, 1963.

Eisenhower, Dwight D. The White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961. New York: Doubleday, 1965.

Freyer, Tony. The Little Rock Crisis: A Constitutional Interpretation. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.

Greenstein, Fred 1. The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader. New York: Basic Books, 1982.

Huckaby, Elizabeth. Crisis at Central High: Little Rock, 1957-1958. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.

Morrow, E. Frederic. Black Man in the White House. New York: Coward-McCann, 1963.

Morrow, E. Frederic. Fortv Years A Guinea Pig. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1980.

Reed, Roy. Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997.

36
CONTRIBUTORS

Michael S. Mayer earned a B.A. and an M.A. at Duke University and a Ph.D. at Princeton University. He
has taught at Princeton University, St. Vincent College, the University of Alabama, Auckland University, the
University of Illinois, and the University of Montana, where he is currently a professor of history. He is
author of Simon E. Sobeloff (1980), the Instructor's Manual to accompany The American Nation (71' ed.,
1981; 8" ed., 1995; 9"' ed., 1997; 10`" ed., 2000), and the Instructor's Manual to accompany A Short
History of the American Nation (6" ed., 1993; 7'" ed., 1997). He also edited and wrote the introduction to
Merrill Proudfoot, Diary of a Sit-In (1990). Mayer edited and contributed to The Eisenhower Presidency
aced the 1950s (1998), and also contributed essays to Reexamining the Eisenhower Presidency (1993),
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Soldier, President, Statesman (1987), American Political Trials (rev. ed., 1994),
and Law and the Great Plains (1996). Additionally, he has published articles in numerous journals.
Forthcoming publications include an essay on the Little Rock crisis in a collection published by the National
Park Service and a book to accompany a documentary video series on the Eisenhower presidency. He is
now completing work on a book dealing with the civil rights policies of the Eisenhower administration.

Terrence J. Roberts is a clinical psychologist and Chief Executive Officer of Terrence J. Roberts &
Associates, a management consultant firm. Since 1993, he has also been co-Chair of the Master's in
Psychology Program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Prior to 1993, he was Assistant Dean of Student
Services, the UCLA School of Social Welfare, 1985-93; Director of Mental Health Services, St. Helena
Hospital and Health Center, 1975-85; Program Director for Social Work, Pacific Union College, 1975-78;
and from 1972 to 1975, Instructor of Social Work, Southern Illinois University where, in 1974, he was
named Outstanding Teacher of the Year in the College of Human Resources. Roberts is a member of the
boards of the Winthrop D. Rockefeller Foundation, the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, the Economic
Resources Corporation, and the Little Rock Nine Foundation. He has contributed articles to the Trial
Handbook for California Law yers (1987), the Journal of Mental Health Administration (1978), and an
Introduction to Black America: A Cultural Perspective (1974). His awards include the Spingarn Medal
(1957), the Robert S. Abbott Memorial Award (1958), the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
Award (1982), and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Award (1995). In 1999, the Congress
of the United States presented him the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of contributions to the
arena of civil rights. He holds a doctorate in psychology from Southern Illinois University and a master's in social work from UCLA.

Rocco C. Siciliano is an attorney who has served in four presidentially appointed positions and as a
corporation chief executive officer of two New York Stock Exchange companies. He is Chairman of the
Dwight D. Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, Washington, D.C. In 2000, President Bill Clinton appointed
him to the newly-established national Eisenhower Memorial Commission. He is also Chairman of the
Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. This is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization
that works to develop innovative ways to improve democratic self-government. He also serves as a
co-Chairman of the California Commission on Campaign Financing. From 1971 to 1984 Siciliano served as
president, then as chairman and chief executive officer of Ticor, a Los Angeles-based, national diversified
financial services company. In 1984 he became Counsel to the national law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis &
Pogue, leaving in 1987 after becoming chairman and chief executive officer of American Health Properties,
a newly formed real estate investment trust. Prior to joining Ticor, Siciliano served as the Under Secretary of
the U.S. Department of Commerce from February 1969 to April 1971. He later was appointed by President
Nixon as a member of the Federal Pay Board (1971-73). Earlier he was Special Assistant to President
Eisenhower for Personnel Management in the White House after having served four years as Assistant
Secretary of Labor (1953-59). He was a founding member, and past Chairman (1986), of the California Business Roundtable (some 90
leading corporations of the state). Siciliano has served on a number of corporate boards and is a Trustee Emeritus of the Committee for
Economic Development, United Television, Inc., and the J. Paul Getty Trust. He served with the U.S. Army during World War II as an
infantry platoon leader in the 10` Mountain Infantry Division in Italy. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Bronze Star
for Valor, and an Army Commendation Ribbon presented by General Mark W. Clark. Siciliano holds an honors degree in political science
from the University of Utah and a law degree from Georgetown University.

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